From the Falmouth Enterprise · May 2, 1975
Dr. Washburn had given Falmouth until May 8 to act on his $2.75 million offer, but the referendum on Town Meeting’s purchase vote was set for May 13. The deadline was extended to July 15. In an April 29 letter to town counsel Edward W. Farrell, Washburn’s Springfield attorney, James F. Egan, said Dr. Washburn would not object to an eminent domain taking with no price stated, leaving a court to decide. Egan said a full appraisal had valued the island well above $3 million, so the gift of $250,000 or more in his price would remain.
Supporters campaigned hard before the vote. Olin J. Kelley of Seapit Road in Waquoit offered free boat trips to the island on May 10, and a group of residents handed out a question-and-answer sheet calling it one of the few places “safely accessible to small boats.” Private fundraising waited on the result. On May 13 voters overturned the purchase, 2,945 to 2,009, and Washburn Island stayed in private hands until the state took it by eminent domain in June 1983.
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