I just added this woman to my collection of spirit animals. Edith Macfield: Stand firm until you die!
1
A real life "The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton
1
Inspiring story.
Too bad the house is so ugly.
Too bad the house is so ugly.
1
Losing historical and natural treasures is
a serious problem which all citizens should be concerned about considering that the loss is usually irreversible. Call you local and state representatives and donate to preservation charities.
a serious problem which all citizens should be concerned about considering that the loss is usually irreversible. Call you local and state representatives and donate to preservation charities.
1
How on earth is this a national treasure? Maybe it fires up your progressive tendencies but a national treasure? C'mon, take a picture and be done with it.
1
I've lived in Ballard the past 20 years and I drove by this house on my way to work for many years before it was surrounded by construction. I don't know anything about the woman who lived there, but the house stood out to me long before the current construction boom because I would often see the owner, a white haired older woman, working in the hard. The yard is what made the house stand out-it was always meticulously manicured and neat. She clearly poured a lot of her love into that house, so I wasn't at all surprised to see her stand firm before the developers. I personally would like to see it become a coffee shop, so that it can live on. I'd hate to see it torn down.
7
We have sold our souls. That tiny place is a behemoth amongst the pathetic, metastasizing monoliths beside it. It does the heart good just to see it.
3
A similar holdout in Elmhurst NY, against a new Macy's store, resulted in a piece sliced out of the (almost) round Queens Boulevard building that now houses Target, Best Buy and other stores. http://gothamist.com/2012/08/06/macys.php When the owner died the property was eventually sold for development.
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton!
1
My thoughts exactly! I don't know how they could've written this without referencing that book!
2
An unfortunate reality is that Americans generally have no sense of History. Their sense of aesthetics is based upon the current fad. Seattle has lost a Googy building because of it. Many antique buildings with Art Nouveaux or Deco ornamentation have been destroyed because people didn't appreciate the Art or see the value in the History. Some building of even older vintage have been lost in the Midwest and Eastern parts of America.
They don't see anything other than the current trend as valuable. We have been bombarded with the idea of a throw away society. We throw away our past culture at risk of becoming shallow and ignorant of how we came to be who we are today.
They don't see anything other than the current trend as valuable. We have been bombarded with the idea of a throw away society. We throw away our past culture at risk of becoming shallow and ignorant of how we came to be who we are today.
2
In real life David does not always slay Goliath. Oh wait, That was made up too.
God bless Ms. Maefield for fighting the good fight, even if the house now falls to bulldozers. Yes, people want to - and have every right - to live in their homes. Throwing money at people to uproot and displace them is exactly that. Denigration. @johannaclear
God bless Ms. Maefield for fighting the good fight, even if the house now falls to bulldozers. Yes, people want to - and have every right - to live in their homes. Throwing money at people to uproot and displace them is exactly that. Denigration. @johannaclear
3
<Putting on my extremist hat>
I am surprised so many cultured and liberal hippies do not see what this house is, what it represent: the raping of nature and Seattle area Native American culture. Before this house there was a farm. Before the farm it was a virgin forest filled with animals and revered by native Americans.
Let's not turn this house into another monument to whitemen's ego, ideology or technology. No park, no coffee shop, no museum, no monument to anti-commercialization. Tore the house down, remove any trace of the name Macefield and restore the forest it once was. Let birds and other wild life have a place to hide in the smug central that's Seattle.
I am surprised so many cultured and liberal hippies do not see what this house is, what it represent: the raping of nature and Seattle area Native American culture. Before this house there was a farm. Before the farm it was a virgin forest filled with animals and revered by native Americans.
Let's not turn this house into another monument to whitemen's ego, ideology or technology. No park, no coffee shop, no museum, no monument to anti-commercialization. Tore the house down, remove any trace of the name Macefield and restore the forest it once was. Let birds and other wild life have a place to hide in the smug central that's Seattle.
4
Has someone proposed moving the house? It's surprisingly inexpensive, especially relative to cost of new construction. Since it honors Ms. Macefield and all those who lived there before her, perhaps current owners would offer it free to anyone who'd move it.
4
Here on the adjacent Seattle suburb of Mercer Island, we now have the plague of spec builders demolishing indifferently-designed older homes and replacing them on their lots with new but equally indifferently-designed spec homes. JG-
5
The decision was quirky, a matter of a person' unique response not something that even admirers of Ms Macefield would emulate in the same circumstances. Would anyone really want to live with those high blank walls on three side, almost no direct sunlight and scarce space to garden and to breath air from a breeze? It is a monument to individualism but not a model of choice. As to its being a thumb in the nose of big business, big government, one doubts that either is in the least disturbed by her gesture.
2
Ah, your sense of idealism inspires! It also, unfortunately, ignores reality. Many new-construction homes, shoehorned between more new-construction homes, lack direct sunlight, a breeze, and a garden.
3
The only tribute worthy of Edith Macefield is for the house to remain as it was when she owned and treasured it. A plaque, a tower of retail or commercial space,.... more garbage, more power to the corporatists, ..... which of these buildings will resonate 100 yrs from now? Zilch.
3
I live pretty close this house and have watched the transformation of this block and area around it for years. I read it on the NY Times and our local paper - the world loves a David and Goliath story and Edith gave us one. Sadly however, after the balloons and attention leave, what remains will be an ugly building housing a gym, Ross and Trader Joe's. Development and developers seem to win out in the long run and yet though we know this and love a good story, nothing seems to change.
The only silver lining to any of this is that fact that less than a block away lies the remains of Mars Hill where it's founder Mark Driscoll succumbed to greed and ego and left in disgrace. Thankfully, Edith's life gave witness to what mattered- she could not be bought out. When the history of the area around NW 46th St in Seattle is written, we'll hear more about Edith than anyone else. We should remember this when redevelopment rears it's ugly head on that street in years to come.
The only silver lining to any of this is that fact that less than a block away lies the remains of Mars Hill where it's founder Mark Driscoll succumbed to greed and ego and left in disgrace. Thankfully, Edith's life gave witness to what mattered- she could not be bought out. When the history of the area around NW 46th St in Seattle is written, we'll hear more about Edith than anyone else. We should remember this when redevelopment rears it's ugly head on that street in years to come.
6
This particular building is one of Seattle's ugliest. This transition to a mega-city is full of cheap, poorly designed gray buildings with little windows. Pretty gross.
5
I view this otherwise ordinary little house as a gem, a precious jewel literally framed by the generic space-efficient towers around it. In earlier times it would hardly merit any particular attention. Now history has created a symbol that polarizes responders, from parents who value it as lesson for their children to those who see an old dump that belonged to a stubborn old woman.
After lives lived with caution or with boldness, when we become elderly perspective shifts to the solace of memories and of the familiar. In respect to those values symbolized by this space, I agree with responders who wish to see a dedicated little garden here. Workers and shoppers would be enriched by their respites in ways that Edith Macefield would have recognized.
After lives lived with caution or with boldness, when we become elderly perspective shifts to the solace of memories and of the familiar. In respect to those values symbolized by this space, I agree with responders who wish to see a dedicated little garden here. Workers and shoppers would be enriched by their respites in ways that Edith Macefield would have recognized.
1
As a native of Ballard, I had the great pleasure of knowing Edith.
She attended a a local church only about a mile away from her house and sat in the front pew every Sunday without fail. After mass all the children would rush to Edith as she always had special treats for each child. Some children would get cars, others dogs; for me it was always horse figurines and everyone got a Tootsie Roll for being well behaved in mass.
As a native of Ballard, it hurts to see the neighborhood change as it has. Homes being torn down and replaced by four more. The charm and character of the area is being swallowed up for the sake of progress.
While change is inevitable, it is unfortunate that what made Ballard a unique place to live is being lost for the sake of that same "progress".
Hopefully whoever comes to own her home keeps some of the old neighborhood and a little piece of Edith alive. She was truly a wonderful lady.
She attended a a local church only about a mile away from her house and sat in the front pew every Sunday without fail. After mass all the children would rush to Edith as she always had special treats for each child. Some children would get cars, others dogs; for me it was always horse figurines and everyone got a Tootsie Roll for being well behaved in mass.
As a native of Ballard, it hurts to see the neighborhood change as it has. Homes being torn down and replaced by four more. The charm and character of the area is being swallowed up for the sake of progress.
While change is inevitable, it is unfortunate that what made Ballard a unique place to live is being lost for the sake of that same "progress".
Hopefully whoever comes to own her home keeps some of the old neighborhood and a little piece of Edith alive. She was truly a wonderful lady.
28
I have not read all the comments, so this may be redundant with what many others have said. Forget the house and other details; this is a symbol and tribute to defiance. So many older people are bullied, pushed around, and now certainly treated with disrespect. This is a symbol of an older person literally giving these people the finger much to the joy of many of us. So hurrah to her!
9
May I suggest a design competition for this space...
The program should be ' scale conscious open livable space for humans'...In memory of those who understand ,especially Ms. Macefield.
The program should be ' scale conscious open livable space for humans'...In memory of those who understand ,especially Ms. Macefield.
2
What happened to this little house is emblematic of the surrounding neighborhood of Ballard. Once a place with great edgy bars and restaurants, built on the history of the northern European settlers, Ballard now has the look of many other neighborhoods in the city and county. Filled with visually boring apartment buildings and generic looking office buildings, being taken over by the chain stores/restaurants of America. The good news is, they can't easily move the ship canal, Chittendon Locks and the bridges - so some character will remain.
7
I grew up in Ballard during the 60's and 70's very near the area of the Macefield house. The neighborhood is unrecognizable from my rambling youth years.
The house I grew up in along with all the others on both sides of the block are gone. Condos and apartment buildings 3-4 stories high built right to the property lines replace them. Seattle did line the blocks with trees back in the 1970's and they went from 5' to beautiful 40'
The house I grew up in along with all the others on both sides of the block are gone. Condos and apartment buildings 3-4 stories high built right to the property lines replace them. Seattle did line the blocks with trees back in the 1970's and they went from 5' to beautiful 40'
5
This tells the story of Mary Sendek, a Queens homeowner who was the only one to refuse to sell her little house when Macy's was building its story in Elmhurst in the Early 1960s. She died there 20 years later, and afterwards her children sold it.
https://placesnomore.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/sendeksandmacys/
https://placesnomore.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/sendeksandmacys/
1
It's a perfect spot for a pocket park, with vertical plantings up the concrete walls.
4
I am assuming that all these posters praising the stubbornness of one woman and the "charm" of this bland bungalow are all exemplars of social consciousness and sustainable development. I bet none of them live in McMansions or shop at any chain restaurants. The reason why there is commercial development is because of demand, your demand for these products. Developer greed does not magically development create. YOU DO! And guess what, if you stop development in your own little fiefdom, the growing population will have to be expanded elsewhere (i.e., suburban sprawl). Further, if it costs too much to live somewhere, more people will move to less desirable places (i.e., more suburban sprawl and the rapid expansion of bland sunbelt cities like Phoenix and Houston).
4
What's the fuss? All that is needed are the air rights starting two stories up -- a little cantilevering and the 1550 square feet can be added to the ROSS building starting at the 3rd floor and even protecting the house somewhat from the elements. It can remain as a permanent tribute to values stronger than money, not to mention a tourist attraction.
5
Had Ms Macefield been born a couple decades earlier in Seattle she may have witnessed the Denny Regrade and this could have informed her. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century— and several miles to the south and east a hill was removed. This area is also currently undergoing a surge of building nearly complete and under the watchful and caring eye of Paul Allen. During the regrade there were several "holdouts" — houses on artificial mesas —dreaming of their little slice of the changing Seattle landscape.
Some have short memories— others might remember—but the larger question is when will we learn?
Some have short memories— others might remember—but the larger question is when will we learn?
1
I love the contrast between the metal artist's philosophical take and the publishing company owner's pro-development angle. This country would be a better place with more of the former and less of the latter.
2
For those who bought homes in Puget Sound with the intent of remaining forever, the current property valuations and tax increases are driving them out. Something is inherently WRONG with a system that places a valuation on a property 8 and 9 times its original costs then ask home owners to pay taxes on those current valuations - even asks them to perpetually increase the levy of those taxes as new wealthy buyers move in expanding populations and increasing demands on resources. Sustainability?! People living in homes they bought in which to die can't even sustain the ever increasing costs of just living. There are things seriously wrong with our current 'new' systems.
7
Ah, progress and the American Way. Ah, taxes! Anywhere! If you have an alternative to assessing owners based on the *current* valuations of their property which would *make sense,* let's hear it. I think anyone wanting to sell their home would like reap proceeds based on its current worth, not on its valuation when it was built. The idea that my parents' 3 BR, 2 BA ranch home on a 1/3 of an acre in the Midwest, which was built for $10K in 1956, should be sold in 2015 for $10,000 is, frankly, bizarre. Intriguing, but bizarre.
Interesting that I read this story in the New York, not the Seattle, Times, the latter of which is in thrall to the tech companies whose "minions" are driving the price of housing in Seattle up to the point where only they can live here. In my own neighborhood about two miles from this house, similar little houses (like mine) are being torn down and replaced with monster houses that occupy the whole lot. And it's all built on a peat bog with really bad drainage, which I suppose these techies are going to learn the hard way. Gotta stop by the store and pick up some balloons...
8
Or you can kick all those tech company out like you did Boeing and just have Seattle sustained by baristas. I wonder if the coffee will be $4 or $0.25 in that kind of economy.
3
Surely it is possible to welcome new businesses, and their employees, into Seattle's economy while still maintaining a city where people of all social classes (yes, we have social classes in this country) can live. The price of housing is causing working people to live so far out of town that an 80-mile - each way! - commute is not usual, with limited public transportation, creating nightmarish traffic congestion and significant environmental degradation. This is an extremely serious threat to the very quality of life which supposedly attracted these businesses in the first place. And Boeing is still here, by they way.
1
Imagine all of the people she could have helped, and in how many different ways, if only she had accepted the $1 million offer.
3
The fact that the house stands and inspires people with its statement about not giving in to the worst aspects of 'progress' - that helps people in a different way. There are enough people with a million dollars to give, or 10 or 100 million.
Imagine how many people she actually did help, and in how many different ways, as an undercover agent for the British during WWII.
Imagine how many people she actually did help, and in how many different ways, as an undercover agent for the British during WWII.
2
“Our generation is constantly moving and looking for something new, but your parents stayed put,” ....I work for a 156 year old cemetery in Eugene, OR., and I can tell you that no one's parents stayed put back then either. People have moved around more than our sentimental ideas lead us to believe. Change happens.
4
Ironic that commercial office buildings are becoming obsolete as millions of us compute instead of commute from home. Her home was the past and the future.Thank God,
1
This particular situation is extreme, but there are so many other examples in Seattle.
4
I don't know how Mr. Phillips could expect to build an office tower on a 1550 square foot lot. Once you take away the required elevator: 80 square feet at a minimum, and the required stair: 160 square feet at least, (assuming a skilled architect can get away with only one egress stair, or make a scissor stair work), you're left with 1310 square feet. That's not much. Most commercial tenants want 25,000 to 28,000 square foot floor plates. Industrial tenants want much more. I could maybe see artsy, small full-floor condos work, but apparently the zoning precludes that.
.
Maybe the house should stay, and be renovated into a museum to Seattle's urban history and Zoning. Or maybe a pocket park on the site? Even just a single floor retail use with a green roof might work better than an office tower on the site. I'm just thinking practically, as the architect I am.
.
Maybe the house should stay, and be renovated into a museum to Seattle's urban history and Zoning. Or maybe a pocket park on the site? Even just a single floor retail use with a green roof might work better than an office tower on the site. I'm just thinking practically, as the architect I am.
12
I'll bet that someone is considering building OVER it, letting it continue with some exterior improvements, and leasing it as store space. Surely there are businsses that could "fit" into 600 SqFt. What a nice legacy that would be to the small standing up to the big.
3
BTW, anyone find it ironic an old woman resisting "commercialism" and supported by hippies is being exploited by those hippies after her death to sell drinks, food, T-shirt and trinkets?
3
Maybe someone will move the house out to the countryside where it will once again be a happy home just as the story goes in the children's book The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. The book was published in 1942.
I often wonder when the sprawl will eventually creep up to the new location?
I often wonder when the sprawl will eventually creep up to the new location?
4
What a fool. She can hide and resist all she want but in the end change still comes to her in the form of death. Everyone have things they lost. Some hurts badly and some not so much but this is the way of life. We cannot always keep what we loved forever because change is always coming.
She spend the last years of her life fighting change and seems to grew bitter and hateful as the buildling went up around her and for what? Just so the house can be around a little longer even though it no longer provides the quality of life she wants? Has she take the million, she would have a better quality of life and she would the people inherited the house. Now the person that inherited the house is broke and have bad credit.
She spend the last years of her life fighting change and seems to grew bitter and hateful as the buildling went up around her and for what? Just so the house can be around a little longer even though it no longer provides the quality of life she wants? Has she take the million, she would have a better quality of life and she would the people inherited the house. Now the person that inherited the house is broke and have bad credit.
2
Maybe she didn't care about a million dollars and felt that the quality of her life was better spent at the house she owned and lived in. Maybe she didn't confuse quality of life with standard of living. Maybe she cared more about her property rights and decided not to be pushed around by those with more money and influence. Maybe, because she could, she enjoyed throwing a monkey wrench into the plans of a developer for whom this was just a big payday. Maybe she was consciously making a point about her values.
1
Not sure why the Haterade for this woman's decision.... she was elderly, she wasn't going to live forever and wanted to die in the house that she lived in (And was HERS) until she died. The inevitable happens, and now "progress" will claim the little house (Unless someone wants to landmark it). Seriously, some readers need a little Empathy 101 here. "Progress" can wait a few years in a human beings life.
16
"UP?" Really? I like to think it's more like:
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton —...Virginia Lee Burton won the Caldecott Medal in 1943 for her memorable picture book The Little House, a poignant story of a cute country cottage that becomes engulfed ...
Burton had a solution!
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton —...Virginia Lee Burton won the Caldecott Medal in 1943 for her memorable picture book The Little House, a poignant story of a cute country cottage that becomes engulfed ...
Burton had a solution!
5
If the people in Seattle like the house so much, why don't they raise the money to have it moved to a park, or some other fitting resting place. It could happen!
2
Yes, they should move it to a park and convert it into tool shed or restroom so it doesn't waste open space. It might be moldy and smelly already so that's half way there.
Chris L.
You think the Macefield home would be a reminder of History? If that's the case we will have ramshackle, decrepit, ready to fall any moment homes dotting the entire countryside.!!
You think the Macefield home would be a reminder of History? If that's the case we will have ramshackle, decrepit, ready to fall any moment homes dotting the entire countryside.!!
1
Reminds me of Crocker's Spite Fence, built on San Francicso's Nob Hill in 1877 by Charles Crocker to block light to a neighbor:
http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Crocker%27s_Spite_Fence
http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Crocker%27s_Spite_Fence
1
Wow, the bland, gray buildings surrounding Mrs. Macefield's house look like those hideous buildings built in the Soviet Union. Why does modern have to be depressing, gray, and boring?
7
It's not about modern. It's about developers value engineering the life out of buildings. Cheaper is always better by their calculation.
2
It keeps the construction real low.
As a commercial real estate professional who values character in the urban landscape, I applaud the Macefield house and its admirers. I agree with the reader who suggests that it be incorporated into the surrounding retail project as a small commercial space and project gateway. (Historic facades and structures can be readily built into modern projects.)
The Macefield house is a wonderful example of the Ballard of bygone days. I hope that the project owners and Seattle zoning officials remember other quirky Seattle landmarks-- the Bridge Troll, the Lenin statue and the Center of the Universe sign-- and retain the Macefield house.
The Macefield house is a wonderful example of the Ballard of bygone days. I hope that the project owners and Seattle zoning officials remember other quirky Seattle landmarks-- the Bridge Troll, the Lenin statue and the Center of the Universe sign-- and retain the Macefield house.
8
I stand semi-corrected by one of the other posters, who points out that Ballard's historic district is nearby, and that the larger site for this project was an underutilized eyesore. But I still support the idea of retaining the Macefield house as a gateway to this retail project that evokes our connection to the past and is in keeping with Seattle's quirkier and most delightful attractions.
(For developers and investors: the Macefield house will serve as a project differentiator and increase consumer traffic. For city officials: the Macefield house is a tourist attraction.)
(For developers and investors: the Macefield house will serve as a project differentiator and increase consumer traffic. For city officials: the Macefield house is a tourist attraction.)
2
A 600 ft^2 bungalow. Who among us, regardless of how conscious we are, could/would live in a space that small? Hats off to her.
2
I read an article years ago about how our collective taste for consumer items (of dubious worth) and our embrace of tawdry, momentary pleasures was replacing the deeper possibilities of our humanity and destroying the planet with over use of resources in the process.
The author wrote a line I never forgot.
Paraphrasing, he said the most radical and most personally powerful sentiment we may come to as individuals to fight this downward slide was this simple thought:
"Who needs it?"
Do we need all the endless stuff, the ephemeral pleasures, the distraction from ourselves and those we should prize, the need to be the star of our own movie and then instantly gratify ourselves by sharing it with unknown others whom we now call "friends."
Want to save and preserve and begin a life that will lead us collectively to a place where what this house symbolizes is ingrained in us and leads us back to our basic good nature as humans?
Ask yourself if you need it.
Then take a walk - alone or with friends - leave your phone home and say hello to a stranger. Especially someone looking down at their phone.
The author wrote a line I never forgot.
Paraphrasing, he said the most radical and most personally powerful sentiment we may come to as individuals to fight this downward slide was this simple thought:
"Who needs it?"
Do we need all the endless stuff, the ephemeral pleasures, the distraction from ourselves and those we should prize, the need to be the star of our own movie and then instantly gratify ourselves by sharing it with unknown others whom we now call "friends."
Want to save and preserve and begin a life that will lead us collectively to a place where what this house symbolizes is ingrained in us and leads us back to our basic good nature as humans?
Ask yourself if you need it.
Then take a walk - alone or with friends - leave your phone home and say hello to a stranger. Especially someone looking down at their phone.
12
This story reminds me of The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. This old NY times story talks about how precious this book for people of all ages.
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/09/books/children-s-books-why-i-still-tre...
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/09/books/children-s-books-why-i-still-tre...
5
It's big box verses little house. The issue is not necessarily about increased density or commercial zoning changes, but about the outcome of those City decisions. Had this ugly development had a human scale, with facade character, step backs, trees, balconies, etc., the little house would have blended right in. Instead, we have these chains, like LA Fitness and Ross, that are simply interested in a box to house their wares. Seattle is at fault for not insisting on better design for this site, for which there are plenty of examples all around the city.
10
Agreed-- although Seattle has done urban redevelopment and historic preservation far better than other cities.
If the buyer REALLY gave a you-know-what about the legacy, they would simply make a park. Leave the space open.
6
Great idea! The city could purchase it and create a pocket park in memory of Ms. Macefield.
1
Excellent idea/I agree.
1
Unlike many similar episodes around the country, this story is a happy one: the owner lived out her life in her own house, and the turnover now is not from an eminent domain seizing, but from a mortgage default.
A cornerstone of the US republic was overturned in the 2005 Kelo vs New London eminent domain case, when the Supreme Court (four liberal justices plus Anthony Kennedy) ruled that private property could be taken for commercial use (vs legitimate public use). That made government a broker in private property instead of a protector. As Ayn Rand observed long ago, "Without property rights, no other rights are possible."
A cornerstone of the US republic was overturned in the 2005 Kelo vs New London eminent domain case, when the Supreme Court (four liberal justices plus Anthony Kennedy) ruled that private property could be taken for commercial use (vs legitimate public use). That made government a broker in private property instead of a protector. As Ayn Rand observed long ago, "Without property rights, no other rights are possible."
5
Good point about the double-edged nature of Kelo, with the strong caveat that the private redevelopment must be part of a program to address blight. Kelo correctly recognizes that public-private partnerships are needed to redevelop an area.
Like good artwork, this home brings responses reflective of individual viewers. Was she just obstinate? Is the disgust over commerce's invasion of the family life? Is she wrong not to just change with the times, or perhaps we are to cling to things material? To the past? It's cold vs. warm, straight concrete vs warm wood. It's reflective of conflicting commercial vs. socio-economic values. Does it touch our need to hold on to the familiar, and a fear of change? It should stay as art, and the commercial entrepreneurs who want to make money off it - will.
5
It just isn't such a great house. If Seattle grants air rights to properties it retains some value but otherwise it is at best a cautionary tale about how being stubborn results in the destruction of value and that value is value to society as well as to the owner of the property. It can be used for a restaurant or other commercial establishment that makes use of "charm" to exploit its uniqueness in its neighborhood
1
In our neighborhood, developers are buying up every square foot they can, tearing down old homes and erecting massive apartment complexes or commercial buildings. We bought a double lot 10 years ago. Our house is on one half. We cleared out the weeds and put in raised vegetable beds, fruit trees, a greenhouse, grape vines, and a chicken coop on the other half. Now we get form letters twice a week from developers offering to purchase our "vacant lot." Some of them don't even admit to being developers--one said that he and his fiancee loved our neighborhood and would want to live here. Of course the envelope had a pre-printed label and the letter was a form that went to every single family home in the "hot" neighborhoods in Portland. I occasionally have a fantasy that one of these greedheads knocks at the door, and I greet him with my non-existent shotgun.
8
Seems like you have a good life at your house. Do you not want to see equally good young couples have affordable home to their own?
I have no problem with "equally good young couples." You obviously didn't read or didn't understand what I said. I have a problem with developers that pose as young couples in order to buy existing homes, tear them down, and build cheaply made apartment buildings (which they rent at ridiculously high prices). It is happening all over Portland, and especially in this neighborhood.
1
What a powerful statement that little house makes. It deserves to stay. I wish I could afford to buy it and maybe turn it into a little coffee house called Macefield. But tear down the house and all it represents? Never!
9
If you modify the interior it wouldn't have its tiny house charm and Macefield's design right? The house is a statement against commercialization so it should not be commercialized. I think you are missing whole Macefield point.
I thought only of preserving it as a community gathering place, not a profit-making venture. Or see if I could get it designated and protected as an historical landmark. Anything to preserve it.
1
As a child, in the mid sixties, I remember the same story happening on Queen's Blvd when Macy's was building a large circular department store.
A women by the name of Mary Sendek refused to sell her home and lived side by side with the store for 15 years until her death.
No one knows if she ever shopped there.
For more info on this story:
https://placesnomore.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/sendeksandmacys/
A women by the name of Mary Sendek refused to sell her home and lived side by side with the store for 15 years until her death.
No one knows if she ever shopped there.
For more info on this story:
https://placesnomore.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/sendeksandmacys/
7
Good read. Thank you. Consider the Macy's was circular, I don't know it her house was virtual to the plan sitting on corner.
A romantic exception to rapidly expanding industrialism and consumerism. Pleasant to see.
5
One can find an interesting precedent by searching for photos of early 20th century regrades in Seattle. Homes of property owners who refused to sign on to the project were left perched high above - or deep below - the new streets. Eventually, they all conformed.
3
Developers are tearing down large and small older homes in Seattle daily, in all neighborhoods. If local residents really cared, they'd be protesting at city hall, demanding better zoning that allows new development while preserving irreplaceable older neighborhoods. But instead, they tie a balloon to the Macefield house while sipping a Starbucks latte and then move on.
Don't forget to snap a selfie in front of the house for your Facebook post.
Don't forget to snap a selfie in front of the house for your Facebook post.
9
Wow, what an alarming photo. Seems pretty unethical what all these developers did to this person's home by hemming it in like that. I guess money talks and empathy walks.
10
It's an awful shame what mega-money and progress(?) do to us. ... all while we destroy the planet we live in. This is progress, or is it really gonna force us to go backward some day?
5
Kind of reminds me of Raffles Hotel in Singapore. A beautiful 19th century relic surrounded by ugly high rises. It's inevitable that the world will become less livable as we "progress".
6
In reading this story, I had to smile at the determination and audacity ms. macefield and her Up house to stand against progress and in the city of seattle no less. good on her and her memory still standing as a testament against continued progress regardless of the personal cost.
as a resident of the evergreen state, I see "progress" everyday in one fashion or another. currently, in "my little town" what once stood as a parking lot is now being constructed to accommodate an apartment complex...next to a bank that is an institution in my little town. it galls me what some property developers will do to squeeze those extra cents out of consumers in this state. considering finding a place to park your own vehicle in this state IS a major issue, taking away a viable and valuable parking lot, me wonders WHO in all their stupidity, has decided an apartment complex downtown next to a bank in my little town "is" a good idea?
as a resident of the evergreen state, I see "progress" everyday in one fashion or another. currently, in "my little town" what once stood as a parking lot is now being constructed to accommodate an apartment complex...next to a bank that is an institution in my little town. it galls me what some property developers will do to squeeze those extra cents out of consumers in this state. considering finding a place to park your own vehicle in this state IS a major issue, taking away a viable and valuable parking lot, me wonders WHO in all their stupidity, has decided an apartment complex downtown next to a bank in my little town "is" a good idea?
2
Mary Navitsky, Anchorage Alaska
As a retired elementary school librarian, I was drawn immediately to the picture of the little house in Seattle. You see it is the modern version of the house featured in Virginia Lee Burton's "The Little House" published in 1942. I guess it is true, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Those who love Ms. Macefield's little house, should get to their public library, school library, or local book dealer and share this wonderful book with the children they love. Why not encase the little house within a new structure and turn it into a public reading area.
As a retired elementary school librarian, I was drawn immediately to the picture of the little house in Seattle. You see it is the modern version of the house featured in Virginia Lee Burton's "The Little House" published in 1942. I guess it is true, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Those who love Ms. Macefield's little house, should get to their public library, school library, or local book dealer and share this wonderful book with the children they love. Why not encase the little house within a new structure and turn it into a public reading area.
5
I remember watching the construction going up around Edith's house, and reading articles about how she was nearing the end of her life. I find it neither irrational nor defiant for her to want to live her last days, and to die, in the home she had lived in for so long. She shared her thoughts with columnist Danny Westneat in 2006, in his piece, http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/edith-macefield-and-her-house-w...
8
This house is in Ballard, a neighborhood exploding condos, bars, and shi-shi shops that cater to the high salary tech employees flooding Seattle. Until not so long ago, Ballard was a quiet out-of-the way neighborhood known for its Scandinavian-rooted fishing population. It is quickly becoming just another yuppie-hipster haven. The Mayfield house needs to remain as a reminder of how easily history and a culture can be paved over.
10
Inevitable is inevitable. Cannot be changed. Ms Macfield is being celebrated - for what? Her stubbornness and dare I say stupidity? She should have taken the million and moved to one of her kid's home. At least, her kith and kin would get something for the old home,which may not have been worth even 75 grand. She was offered a million for her home being on prime land. Now the family has nothing thanks to Ms Macfield's grandstanding. Foreseeing the inevitable and taking an offer that could not be refused would have been the wisest, practical course. And she could even wrangle out an agreement to have plate stating - "This is the House where Ms Macefield lived" - after her moving away. What could have been a win-win situation, turned out to be lose-lose situation. Stubbornness is a trait that can be self-destructive.
1
I have personally witnessed the saga over the years of this home in the Ballard area of Seattle. When this house was built in 1900, Ballard was an unincorporated fishing village neighborhood North of Seattle. Imagine if all the home owners that once were in downtown major cities years ago decided to behave in this manner.
Ms. Macefield’s behavior mostly punished herself. Rather than zero views from three sides of her home she could have taken the money and lived in comfort in her final years.
An example that one can hold back neither the tide of sea water nor the inevitable human cultural growth.
A similar situation existed in Seattle a number of years ago when a major hospital built in a then neighborhood at the turn of the last century needed to expand consistent with the growing population it served. The hospital simply built a three story office building around the recalcitrant homeowner whose three sides faced a masonry wall and the forth side a parking lot.
Ms. Macefield’s behavior mostly punished herself. Rather than zero views from three sides of her home she could have taken the money and lived in comfort in her final years.
An example that one can hold back neither the tide of sea water nor the inevitable human cultural growth.
A similar situation existed in Seattle a number of years ago when a major hospital built in a then neighborhood at the turn of the last century needed to expand consistent with the growing population it served. The hospital simply built a three story office building around the recalcitrant homeowner whose three sides faced a masonry wall and the forth side a parking lot.
1
The land is zoned industrial and always has been. When you are old and increasingly frail you won't want to move either! She had no one apparently so she became good friends with the construction crew for Ballard's new boom. My grandfather was here in Seattle in the 1890s for the Gold Rush in Alaska--he did not get rich going to the Klondike. I am a Scandanavian descendent of the pioneers here who stripped the land for timber to build San Francisco. My grandfather also worked in these mills just blocks away from Edith's house. These are boomtimes for Seattle and Ballard. Boomtimes come and go. Edith stayed put and died on her couch. It's pretty simple folks--people add their own mythology to this point in a long history. The good Indian folk once here that lived a good sustainable life--weep for them and think of Edith and then be kind to your neighbor and keep peace in your heart.
8
Lewis Mumford said the ultimate in architectural criticism is for a building to be demolished to make room for something better.
I wonder if the little house will still be standing when the concrete boxes are demolished.
I wonder if the little house will still be standing when the concrete boxes are demolished.
I went to school in Seattle in the early 80's it was a wonderful Pacific Northwest City with all the charm and uniqueness that that implies. Lovely tree lined streets with many more houses similar this this one under siege. Different period neighborhoods with homes of historical significance. I went back a couple of years ago and actually did not recognize the city at all. The areas I used to go were there were small Mom and Pop stores and restaurants were all gone and buildings similar to the two on either side of this poor little house had replaced them, the city was rampant wtih strip malls. There is no urban long term planning being done by city officials anymore, such a shame.
6
No Kyle, the shame is people thinking that their own past is what needs to be enshrined. Everything changes and it always has and it always should. It is a brand new day.
1
There is a children's book "The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton. Published by Houghton it won the Caldecott medal in 1943. It is a delightful and charmingly rendered story about a small house, very much like Mrs. Macefields, that is engulfed in stages by commercial buildings and the soot and noise of a bustling city. While the outcome for the little house in the book is happy one the means used to achieve that happiness would not have made Mrs. Macefield happy. It’s plucked off its foundation and carted by truck out into the country where the implicit message is the cycle will begin anew.
I suppose the value of Mrs. Macefiled's lot in dollars overreaches the value of the lot as a park but I’d like to think that their must be at least one tech millionaire who could convince the developer to fashion Mrs. Macefield’s yard into a resting place for bustling city dwellers to relax, renew and reenergize themselves. And if they really wanted to wink at Mrs. Macefield they could plant her favorite flowers.
I suppose the value of Mrs. Macefiled's lot in dollars overreaches the value of the lot as a park but I’d like to think that their must be at least one tech millionaire who could convince the developer to fashion Mrs. Macefield’s yard into a resting place for bustling city dwellers to relax, renew and reenergize themselves. And if they really wanted to wink at Mrs. Macefield they could plant her favorite flowers.
5
Most of the readers fail to see what the problem really is: overpopulation.
Regardless of choice of aesthetics, the house has little architectural value and a lot of sentimental and nostalgic value. People just need to stop having so many babies. And the worst problem is that it is the people that can least afford them, the ones that are overpopulating the world exhausting natural resources and creating wars in places with the least resources and opportunities for future generations.
Regardless of choice of aesthetics, the house has little architectural value and a lot of sentimental and nostalgic value. People just need to stop having so many babies. And the worst problem is that it is the people that can least afford them, the ones that are overpopulating the world exhausting natural resources and creating wars in places with the least resources and opportunities for future generations.
3
This reminds me of "Denny hill", the way we used to eat our ice cream in Seattle when we stayed with our grandmother in 1945 in what was a rural suburb but now part of Seattle. We would carve away the ice cream on all sides, leaving a a somewhat pointed structure with a small flat top.
We were told that a Mrs. Denny had refused to sell her house where a development was planned. The development company carved away the ground all about her house, leaving her at the top of a hill with very steep slopes on all sides. She built wooden steps into these slopes and continued to live in her house.
So we were told. At 78 I still eat my ice cream in this way, in rememberence of Mrs. Denny. It is interesting to see that this spirit has lived on in Seattle.
We were told that a Mrs. Denny had refused to sell her house where a development was planned. The development company carved away the ground all about her house, leaving her at the top of a hill with very steep slopes on all sides. She built wooden steps into these slopes and continued to live in her house.
So we were told. At 78 I still eat my ice cream in this way, in rememberence of Mrs. Denny. It is interesting to see that this spirit has lived on in Seattle.
5
Stubbornness and romanticism in the face of realism and progress. If all humans would think like her, we would still be in the Stone Age.
1
It's not a liberal/conservative, Republican/Democrat issue. Too many questions are now couched in that simplistic division which reflects only antagonism and is a failure for both sides. There's always nostalgia in each generation for the world when we were young. Change always brings loss and gain, but change always occurs. I am concerned, as older people always are, about what will be valuable for today's children who sit in front of screens instead of playing outside in the parks or woods. But, as has been true in each era, the young will find their own memories to cherish (and some will find stands to take against selfish blind power). Now this question is mixed with the question that we will surpass the limits the earth can sustain. Ms. Macefield's tale is one person's stand in the shadow of the seemingly inexorable mass. Let's hope that the ability of humans to deal with change will continue strong enough so that these issues are present for generations to come -- that we and the planet that sustains us survives in such fashion that our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will have some measure of joy and pleasure in their lives to be nostalgic for and uphold. May the glass always be both half full and half empty and may those filled with simplistic hatred for (or fear of) "the other side" learn this simple (and, yes, personal) truth so that we can again, together, face and harmonize change as it inevitably comes.
7
Well here's a positive hallmark of change: our ability to read insightful comments like this one, enabled by online technology. Your expansive and generous thoughts make me feel the glass is at least half full.
2
I remember when something similar to that happened 30-40 years ago at the site that is now Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst, Queens, NY. The home owner refused to sell and the mall was just built around it. Personally, I think that the homeowner was just a stubborn so and so and was probably the same way with his dealings on all other issues.
1
It wasn't the Queens Center Mall, which was built a few years later. It was the circular Macy's building that was built a couple of blocks away. This happened around 1965. The architect had to cut out a notch in the circular building to accommodate the air rights of the home's owner.
1
In European cities old facades are often retained with entirely new structures built behind. How cool would it be to retain the Macefield house (or a facsimile constructed out of more appropriate materials) as the first 2 floors of a new modern building?
1
She may have been happy living her last days there, but were the heirs? Just foolish on her part. As a practical matter, she could have taken the money and lived more comfortably elsewhere. Although this may appear as the plight of the little homeowner standing up to corporate America, the tale here is not alone in the country. I trust the rezoning was on the up and up? But this scenario is played out numerous times as a result of population increase along with demand for goods and services. She hit the lottery, but never cashed in.
3
Since the actual amount of property is so insignificant relative to the massive modern structures that surround it, it's as if the house really weren't even there at all to begin with and has no effective impact other than its novelty. The most practical thing would be to simply encase the niche the house sits on with a glass atrium frame and just leave the house as a kitschy ornament for the otherwise featureless modern structures.
Sort of a inconvenient reminder and subtle testament to the banality and impersonal emptiness of modern-day urban dwelling.
Sort of a inconvenient reminder and subtle testament to the banality and impersonal emptiness of modern-day urban dwelling.
1
It is easy to understand that this little house represents so much more to so many people. It is a wonderful grain of sand in the gears of "progress" that grind us down or bulldoze us out of the way.
7
Not all change is bad and evil. It's a question of what you get for what you give up. The real story here is what replaced the buildings around this house. Just look at the utter lack of style and grace! Flat surfaces. Gray. No two matching windows. Aluminum frame windows. Visible structural bracing through the windows. No ornamentation whatsoever - what style is this - corporate cheap? And to top it all off, that symbol of America, the creosote soaked telephone pole, wires, and visible utilities. What an eyesore. Horrible!
9
Reminds me of a sweet children's book called "The Little House". In the story the house was once in the country but got engulfed by the city, hemmed in very much like the house in Seattle. In the story there's a stipulation that the house can never be sold. One day a young family is walking by and realizes that this is grandpa's house. They have it moved back out to the country to a spot very much like the one where it was originally.
5
Yes, "The Little House" written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton came to my mind too. Ian C. Bates' picture in the times looks as if it was torn straight from Burton's book, which won the Caldecott Medal in 1943.
1
The fact that woman's stand was a quirk, is more telling than the residents of Seattle may want to realize.
Because here is how progress works, friends. The quirky building will be destroyed, and the "little infill" will be built by some money people, and that woman's stand and life will become just a memory, with a nice plaque, but in no way a precedent.
Because here is how progress works, friends. The quirky building will be destroyed, and the "little infill" will be built by some money people, and that woman's stand and life will become just a memory, with a nice plaque, but in no way a precedent.
3
I don't understand why the is such a conflict between moving forward and staying connecting to the past. The quality of 100 year old building still standing says something. The details Sullivan, Wright, Ittner.. gave to our buildings were special. Once they are gone they are gone forever.
It all boils down to money. Some people want a quick buck not realizing saving the quaility from the past and bringing into the present will bring long term money in abundant ways and a continued quaility of life that is priceless.
It all boils down to money. Some people want a quick buck not realizing saving the quaility from the past and bringing into the present will bring long term money in abundant ways and a continued quaility of life that is priceless.
5
This is at the root of a much larger social issue. Our elders, who have worked their fingers to the bone, want nothing more then to enjoy their sunset years in the homes that they built with all that work. That is a core human need that crashes into the American capitalist way of thinking. Suddenly "the land" is worth alot of money, and the money men demand aquiesence to their plans. But this very same land is someone's cherished home. If our culture really respected their elders, there would be laws against pressuring them to sell their property. Money is not the root of happiness.
9
As a near local, I say good for her.
5
The house ought to be made into a museum showing what was, ... and will never be again in that area of town.
4
There are lots of other examples of this -- the owner of a small property who holds out as a developer is assembling a site, with the project eventually being designed around the holdout. Examples in New York are the two small buildings on the Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) side of the GE Building (49th and 5oth Streets) and Papillon Bistro & Bar on 54th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenue. In the latter case, the new building was built on either side of and above the old building. For years they were separate, but now they have been combined and Papillon extends from the old building into the new.
Oh Please! All of the romantic hogwash about a woman who refused to budge, created an eye sore and did not look beyond herself to what good she may have done with the $1 million offered her for relocation. The movie "Up" was about a home built with love and a relationship with his departed wife and her dreams. Not about the stubborn planting of one's self in the middle of (what was a heavily, heavily industrialized area, folks, not a row of sweet little houses) a declining area that was now being revitalized.
I find all the hoopla annoying because I see it as total selfishness and not thinking beyond ones self and not of a greater good..
This is not the essence of the sweet little house depicted in "Up."
I find all the hoopla annoying because I see it as total selfishness and not thinking beyond ones self and not of a greater good..
This is not the essence of the sweet little house depicted in "Up."
3
Aaaaaah, I've been waiting for it and there it is, the "Greater Good." As if malls and high-rises are for the "Greater Good."
Further, as if the "Greater Good" is an objective and quantifiable thing.
Further, as if the "Greater Good" is an objective and quantifiable thing.
11
Of course there is the corner of 34th and Broadway,l where a Nedick's(?) stand stood for years making Macy's build around it. And the house in Rego Park Queens that wouldn't sell (again to Macy"s) and their perfect round building was ruined.
And in Atlantic City wans;t there a building that prevented a casino from buildin in a perfect line. Good for these individuals who, for whatever reason held out against "progress:.
And in Atlantic City wans;t there a building that prevented a casino from buildin in a perfect line. Good for these individuals who, for whatever reason held out against "progress:.
8
Yes RJS it was a Nedick's. NE Corner of Broadway and 34th. Macy's had to pay rent for the billboard at that corner that proclaimed Macy's as "The world's largest store".
The name of the woman who refused to sell her parcel to Macy's Queens was Mary Sendek, a long time resident of the area. You can see here a great photo of her home: https://placesnomore.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/sendeksandmacys/
The name of the woman who refused to sell her parcel to Macy's Queens was Mary Sendek, a long time resident of the area. You can see here a great photo of her home: https://placesnomore.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/sendeksandmacys/
3
The owners of that building in Atlantic City were offered way more than a million dollars for that property. They held out for more money and not because of preservation. Well now that Atlantic City is on the outs, the owners of the building put the house up for auction and I think they might have gotten a hundred thousand for it. My numbers may be a little off but that was the basic story.
Similar situation when they built the round Macy's at Queen's center. One house owner would not sell because she wanted the yard for her dog. That is whythe building is not completely round!
3
This is exactly like the children's book, "The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton. I read it to my kids all the time. It was like a fairy tale, but also deeply grounded in the reality of our world and "progress." I never had any idea there was a real little house anywhere.
So sorry to see it go.
So sorry to see it go.
4
This is almost literally a page (*) out of the 1942 classic children's book "The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton; perhaps my favorite children's book. (*) Actually 2 pages, if I remember correctly; a 2-page image of the little house sad as it is surrounded by tall buildings and eventually an El train. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_House
5
By leaving this little house where it is and restoring it into a museum home of sort, this neighborhood of nondescript towers will be the talk of the town for all of the right reasons. Today's bland high-rise architecture rarely deserve to be called architecture.
That said, I have been to Seattle a few times and truly love the place with its Pike Place Market and views of the incomparable Puget Sound. I have no idea if the local preservationists are prepared to take on this fight. Maybe this is simply a case of "choose your battles."
But after more than 45 years in the marketing communications biz, it seems to me that this little home could become more than it ever was. Maybe it has to be moved but, what would be the point in that? The walls of concrete surrounding this house look the equivalent of museum framing of a great photograph at MoMA.
Seattle has an opportunity to turn this cute little lemon into a fine jug of lemonade to be enjoyed for what it can be. At a mere 600 square feet, there are some challenges for finding a "use" for it. But Seattle is a creative city. Someone will figure that out.
That said, I have been to Seattle a few times and truly love the place with its Pike Place Market and views of the incomparable Puget Sound. I have no idea if the local preservationists are prepared to take on this fight. Maybe this is simply a case of "choose your battles."
But after more than 45 years in the marketing communications biz, it seems to me that this little home could become more than it ever was. Maybe it has to be moved but, what would be the point in that? The walls of concrete surrounding this house look the equivalent of museum framing of a great photograph at MoMA.
Seattle has an opportunity to turn this cute little lemon into a fine jug of lemonade to be enjoyed for what it can be. At a mere 600 square feet, there are some challenges for finding a "use" for it. But Seattle is a creative city. Someone will figure that out.
The Omni Mall complex in Miami, mid 1970s, also had a property owner holdout. The mall enclosed the house on 2 sides. Mall is now defunct.
6
I live in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle ad have for the past ten years. It is a great place to live with a thriving commercial and historic district a stone's throw from the Macefield house. While I admired her determination and her defiance she did not live long after completion of the retail project that enveloped her house. I often thought that the attorney who worked so diligently to save her house and keep her in it did her a great disservice.
Ballard was a predominantly working class neighborhood with Scandinavian roots, a collection of relatively modest wood frame houses that stood almost frozen in time for decades. It was the butt of many jokes. It now is the fastest growing neighborhood in Seattle. Personally I love the new more urban vibe and it has attracted young singles and young families. Many of the houses of the 1900-1920's vintage like Ms. Macefield's were never built to last for centuries but roughly sixty years with the thought that they would be replaced as land was cheap back in 1920 and the houses cost on average $2,000 to build. Many of them have been remodeled but a good portion of them need to be torn down to make way for new housing. The unfortunate thing is that most of the new housing is aimed at young well paid techies and starting prices are around a million dollars and are so large they swamp their lots and dwarf their neighbors. Like New York or San Francisco, Seattle is fast becoming a ghetto for he privileged few.
Ballard was a predominantly working class neighborhood with Scandinavian roots, a collection of relatively modest wood frame houses that stood almost frozen in time for decades. It was the butt of many jokes. It now is the fastest growing neighborhood in Seattle. Personally I love the new more urban vibe and it has attracted young singles and young families. Many of the houses of the 1900-1920's vintage like Ms. Macefield's were never built to last for centuries but roughly sixty years with the thought that they would be replaced as land was cheap back in 1920 and the houses cost on average $2,000 to build. Many of them have been remodeled but a good portion of them need to be torn down to make way for new housing. The unfortunate thing is that most of the new housing is aimed at young well paid techies and starting prices are around a million dollars and are so large they swamp their lots and dwarf their neighbors. Like New York or San Francisco, Seattle is fast becoming a ghetto for he privileged few.
26
Yup. I live about 8 blocks from the "Up House". In the ten years that I've lived here virtually my entire street has been torn up and replaced with ugly cheap 2 bedroom townhomes 4 to lot. Selling for $450k each.
My post WWII duplex was just sold to meet the same fate and I'll probably head down to Porland after twenty years in Seattle. The cost of liviing is too high and I'll never be able to afford a house of my own up here.
My post WWII duplex was just sold to meet the same fate and I'll probably head down to Porland after twenty years in Seattle. The cost of liviing is too high and I'll never be able to afford a house of my own up here.
3
"The unfortunate thing is that most of the new housing is aimed at young well paid techies and starting prices are around a million dollars and are so large they swamp their lots and dwarf their neighbors. Like New York or San Francisco, Seattle is fast becoming a ghetto for he privileged few."
This may be the most telling part of your account. Those of us who look at Ms. Macefield's house and think "good for her" may not understand the specific issues surrounding the house's continued existence. What we do see, however, is a disparity of opportunity and outcomes. Ms. Macefield might have been able to use the money offered to her to live out her days in luxurious comfort somewhere else, but that would have been somewhere else, not home. She wanted to stay in her home and because of that, made a choice to serve herself by staying, rather than by taking the money and running. She was going to be left poorer one way or the other. Only those who have real wealth can choose to live exactly where they want to live and at what level of comfort. She could only choose one or the other and she did.
This may be the most telling part of your account. Those of us who look at Ms. Macefield's house and think "good for her" may not understand the specific issues surrounding the house's continued existence. What we do see, however, is a disparity of opportunity and outcomes. Ms. Macefield might have been able to use the money offered to her to live out her days in luxurious comfort somewhere else, but that would have been somewhere else, not home. She wanted to stay in her home and because of that, made a choice to serve herself by staying, rather than by taking the money and running. She was going to be left poorer one way or the other. Only those who have real wealth can choose to live exactly where they want to live and at what level of comfort. She could only choose one or the other and she did.
1
Right here in NYC we have a prime example of stubbornness meets development and wins....the two little townhouses that flank Rockefeller Center at 1240 and 1258 and Sixth Ave. They are now legendary and blend well with the design but stand like lost soldiers in the endless battle against encroaching development. Let's hope that Ms. Macefield's tiny house will stand as well as a testament to how one woman's grit and individuality withstood the onslaught of development. It is a distinctly American story and one too seldom realized.
7
This house represents a stand against corporate interests, a stand against government interests but mostly it is an expression of the true spirit of free-market capitalism and private property rights.
5
I can't help but stare at the image of this house, formerly home to a genuine, iving, breathing, human occupant, about to be fully engulfed by lifeless, soulless, commercial buildings, shooting upward, completely out of view. The symbolic power seems to almost rival Paul Strand's iconic "Wall Street" image.
7
There is a similar situation across the street from me on Cooper Square in Manhattan. A developer wanted to build a starchitect-designed, hi-rise, boutique, destination hotel/restaurant. There was a five-story 19th century tenement building in the way, most famous for being where the great jazz musician Don Cherry lived for most of his life. My understanding is that the two tenants on the top floor were allegedly offered somewhere in the vicinity of $500K each to move out, but they refused the offer, and under NYC rent laws, they could not be forced out. So the hotel bought the building from the landlord, built around the property and use the bottom floors for offices.
The hotel has since been sold to The Standard, is now known as The Standard East Village.
The hotel has since been sold to The Standard, is now known as The Standard East Village.
2
This sort of silly scenario recently ended in Atlantic City. Many years ago during the boom times of casinos, the owner of a house was offered millions for it. She refused. The casino properties built up around her -- isolating the property between huge hotels. The owner died a few years ago and at this point, no one wanted the property. Ultimately it sold for very little and was demolished.
It would have been more sensible at the time to take the millions and move to another location in the city that was residential rather than stay on a commercial street hemmed in by traffic and highrises.
From the photo -- the same scenario is playing out in Seattle.
It would have been more sensible at the time to take the millions and move to another location in the city that was residential rather than stay on a commercial street hemmed in by traffic and highrises.
From the photo -- the same scenario is playing out in Seattle.
2
She just wanted to live in her house. She'd been there for decades and didn't want to move. The money meant nothing to her; home did. Not so hard to understand.
6
You don't understand the concept of "making a point," do you? Sure, it is possible that it would have been more "sensible" for Ms. Macefield to take the cash, and cut and run. But that's not what she wanted. She wanted to make a point, probably about the negative ramifications of people's lives being displaced in the name of commercial endeavor, and she did just that. It's a Seattle thing, and I, as a former Seattleite (as well as Everettonian, Bothellian, and Kirklandite) understand it well, a pushback against the establishment and their friends by the frontier spirit of the common person that is so commonplace in the Pacific Northwest. When I was there, Seattle was less a city than a group of neighborhoods that were like individual small towns, each with its own character and philosophy. Ballard, just north of the ship canal to Lakes Union and Washington, and with an enormous recreation marina on its Sound shore, was predominantly residential, except hard on the water. Regardless of where Ms. Macefield's home is exactly, it is a sure bet that the neighborhood was working-class residential long before the commercial interests were granted the variances necessary to build the grey monstrosities that appear in this article's opening photograph. This was clearly her protest about the powerlessness of the individual against moneyed interests, and regardless of its futility, stands as a prime example of principle against profit. She is a woman worth memorializing.
5
What a great opportunity site for "Apple" ,"Starbucks or even "McDonalds"......in the end "Big Brother" knows best........
4
Seems strange to me current owner didn't sell, and instead permitted mortgage default? Perhaps future zoning influenced decision?
Seems fishy to me!
Seems fishy to me!
2
Reminds me of the children's book "The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton, who won the Caldecott Medal in 1943 for the lovey story and charming illustrations. Our children loved the book and wore it out.
In Burton's story, the little house is happy in the country where it was built, but then a city is gradually built up all around it, and the little house becomes neglected, dilapidated, and sad. Happy ending: the house is bought and taken back to the country where it becomes loved and happy again.
I wonder if some of the people making special trips to see the little house in Seattle read and loved Burton's charming book when they were children.
In Burton's story, the little house is happy in the country where it was built, but then a city is gradually built up all around it, and the little house becomes neglected, dilapidated, and sad. Happy ending: the house is bought and taken back to the country where it becomes loved and happy again.
I wonder if some of the people making special trips to see the little house in Seattle read and loved Burton's charming book when they were children.
1
A nice, humble house surrounded by woefully overpriced high-rises stands as a reminder of the coldness of the modern world.
6
I say carefully pick up the house... build your skyscraper... and place it neatly on top. Leave a walkway with gardens around it up in the sky. It would be an instant tourist attraction as well as an uplifting statement about defiance.
3
As usual, the legend is more than overstated.
Ms Macefiled was like a lot of people - "I will die at home". That is not a statement against developers, it's a statement of determined decision making.
I absolutely agree that todays young people do not put down roots in the same way that centuries of families have before. And I'm very concerned.
Ms Macefiled was like a lot of people - "I will die at home". That is not a statement against developers, it's a statement of determined decision making.
I absolutely agree that todays young people do not put down roots in the same way that centuries of families have before. And I'm very concerned.
3
Someday after we're all gone, Mother Nature may take back the whole area and future archeologists (if humans are still around) will dig to find our detritus.
2
Sooner, people will reminisce about their McMansions and disposable electronics.
2
As a monument to stubborn individualism this house should be despised by Communitarians. Instead it is lauded as defiance to development and corporate interests.
Odd.
Odd.
3
I think the reason people are drawn to this little house is because it is charming and it represents a time when life was charming. We have lost that as 7.2 billion humans cannot live in a charming fashion, so we will travel to this little house and attach balloons to it and wish we could all float away to a better time and a better place and a charming way of life........
12
Well put Zenster- people in Manhattan can relate to native Seattlelites like me. JG-
1
But there aren't 7.2 billion people in Seattle.
a native Seattlelite like me can relate to a native Manhattanite because I'm long married to one of those- born in Brooklyn. JG-
A metaphor for Seattle now and then. When we were growing up we always wanted to be bigger -- and respected by those that were. But now that we're on the world's front pages, we've got all the major league problems that come with being too big, too fast and too noticed. Dear unknown gems of America: "Be careful what you wish for. You might be next." -- A 5th generation native.
5
It's a shame that instead of letting the house go into default, the owner did not find an organization willing to buy the house, who would preserve it as a symbol of hope. In the end, the house will be sold to a corporation who will tear it down a put a small plaque with Macefield's name on it. In todays world, one misstep can cost you everything. Banks do well that way.
3
I have driven by the house for the last 30 years. Before they built the building the lot was a parking lot for garbage trucks. In the afternoons I would see her tending her tiny flower garden that ran between the house and the street. It was only a foot or two deep but ran the width of the house. As long as she was healthy she tended those flowers every summer. That added a touch of color to an otherwise bleak neighborhood.
80
It looks like a lovely spot for some public art. Maybe a statue of Ms. Masefield.
1
The same situation can be found in Washington DC at 650 Massachusetts Avenue, NW. The old house is now converted to a coffee bar.
1
People haven't really changed all that much.
I well remember one summer as a small child the house across the street moved away. We were living at the edge of a small housing track in Southern California and a newer and even bigger track of ranch style homes was going up across the boulevard. The people who lived on that few acre plot must not have minded selling out for a better price then they could get for a truck farm, but wanted to keep the family home.
Years later, after moving from LA to Orange County and graduating high school I passed every day on my way to park in the Junior College Parking lot a tiny cottage home inhabited by an 80 something widow. It was a small chunk out of the college grounds that would only disappear years later as the widow had only sold on condition she could continue to live there until she died.
As I near my 70s I know many people who have gone through similar episodes and contemplate that I and my neighbors will see many more. Memory may not be tied to place in the young, but it grows in middle age and becomes a major effect among the elders of any society.
It is true that not all homes are family homes. But most homes that are occupied by those who have become elderly are precious to their owners. We are by nature creatures of habit and cling to the comfort of a well worn life as it proceeds toward a final sunset.
I well remember one summer as a small child the house across the street moved away. We were living at the edge of a small housing track in Southern California and a newer and even bigger track of ranch style homes was going up across the boulevard. The people who lived on that few acre plot must not have minded selling out for a better price then they could get for a truck farm, but wanted to keep the family home.
Years later, after moving from LA to Orange County and graduating high school I passed every day on my way to park in the Junior College Parking lot a tiny cottage home inhabited by an 80 something widow. It was a small chunk out of the college grounds that would only disappear years later as the widow had only sold on condition she could continue to live there until she died.
As I near my 70s I know many people who have gone through similar episodes and contemplate that I and my neighbors will see many more. Memory may not be tied to place in the young, but it grows in middle age and becomes a major effect among the elders of any society.
It is true that not all homes are family homes. But most homes that are occupied by those who have become elderly are precious to their owners. We are by nature creatures of habit and cling to the comfort of a well worn life as it proceeds toward a final sunset.
8
This home sat for decades in the shadow of the Ballard Bridge across the narrow ship canal in a now booming northern section of Seattle called Ballard. This town was, for most of the last century, a gritty blue collar place where fishermen lived and ship repair shops consumed the cluttered streets along the narrow waterfront. An area in steep decline.
Today, Ballard is rapidly growing with a huge influx of young techies pouring in from all over the world to work at places like Amazon & Microsoft. Real estate is soaring and Ballard is fast becoming the "Brooklyn" of NYC. What is occurring in Ballard, and all along the congested waterfront in Seattle, is a cleanup and revitalization of the highly industrialized, unusable, and polluted sections of the City now being converted into viable living spaces. This very narrow snapshot does not provide the entire picture of what this area once looked like (think Red Hook) & how it is now evolving into a place of commerce and entertainment for the booming town that is finally reawakening all around it. In the old days this would have been simply referred to as "progress".
While I admire Edith's determination and fortitude to resist the encroachment upon her life style, at the same time she missed a fantastic opportunity to cash out & live her golden years in comfort & security. That was her choice and good for her.
But greater Ballard itself is in a far better place than it has ever been after a long previous century of dismal decline.
Today, Ballard is rapidly growing with a huge influx of young techies pouring in from all over the world to work at places like Amazon & Microsoft. Real estate is soaring and Ballard is fast becoming the "Brooklyn" of NYC. What is occurring in Ballard, and all along the congested waterfront in Seattle, is a cleanup and revitalization of the highly industrialized, unusable, and polluted sections of the City now being converted into viable living spaces. This very narrow snapshot does not provide the entire picture of what this area once looked like (think Red Hook) & how it is now evolving into a place of commerce and entertainment for the booming town that is finally reawakening all around it. In the old days this would have been simply referred to as "progress".
While I admire Edith's determination and fortitude to resist the encroachment upon her life style, at the same time she missed a fantastic opportunity to cash out & live her golden years in comfort & security. That was her choice and good for her.
But greater Ballard itself is in a far better place than it has ever been after a long previous century of dismal decline.
7
''..think Red Hook'''
Spike Lee has it right, these yuppies, techies, new money, or whatever else you want to call them - are dispalacing poor working class New Yorkers who have lived in Red Hook or similar neighborhoods all their lives. But, hey..they're wealthy and white so who cares. Amazing.
Spike Lee has it right, these yuppies, techies, new money, or whatever else you want to call them - are dispalacing poor working class New Yorkers who have lived in Red Hook or similar neighborhoods all their lives. But, hey..they're wealthy and white so who cares. Amazing.
Sorry -- Ballard is not "better" now.
1
I assure you that many of the people moving into Ballard are not wealthy or white for that matter. Many are of Asian, Indian, & African American extraction. But I wasn't aware of the fact that if you are Caucasian that you are no longer welcome in Brooklyn. And the last time I checked Mr. Lee lives in a multi million dollar townhouse on 63rd Street in Manhattan. Nobody discriminated against him when he moved into that neighborhood and drove up the real estate prices even further.
1
'Progress' is often based upon greed, short-sightedness, and that illogical belief in linear growth, all of which would digress from the fact that even if the politicians and their lawyers and massive bag of tricks (and erasures) do not directly remove 'obstacles' such as these, they still wait, starving them out, and in the end, get their dirty way.
Personally, if I had won the lottery or had that rich relative die and leave me everything, and had any desire to live in Seattle (sorry, no), it would be a grand thing to buy this house and simply fix it up and habitat it, hiring my own posse of lawyers to fight for my right to do so (after all, it has been there longer than those other buildings), and be a big-arsed thorn in the side of Progress.
THAT is the American way.
Progress. Pffffffttttttttt.
Personally, if I had won the lottery or had that rich relative die and leave me everything, and had any desire to live in Seattle (sorry, no), it would be a grand thing to buy this house and simply fix it up and habitat it, hiring my own posse of lawyers to fight for my right to do so (after all, it has been there longer than those other buildings), and be a big-arsed thorn in the side of Progress.
THAT is the American way.
Progress. Pffffffttttttttt.
3
dmucthler:
Progress and growth in this case has allowed for the revitalization of an area that was once practically uninhabitable and environmentally challenged. Progress of this kind has also allowed the Town to provide much needed resources for the expansion of services that the needy and the general public have been clamoring for.
Perhaps, we should just allow these areas to continue to crumble and fold. Then we can all easily sit back and complain about the general decline of our cities and thus look forward to a nation of Detroits from coast to coast.
You can't have it both ways......You either do intelligent growth that enhances the general good or you keep sinking to the lowest level which negatively impacts everyone in all sorts of ways.
Progress and growth in this case has allowed for the revitalization of an area that was once practically uninhabitable and environmentally challenged. Progress of this kind has also allowed the Town to provide much needed resources for the expansion of services that the needy and the general public have been clamoring for.
Perhaps, we should just allow these areas to continue to crumble and fold. Then we can all easily sit back and complain about the general decline of our cities and thus look forward to a nation of Detroits from coast to coast.
You can't have it both ways......You either do intelligent growth that enhances the general good or you keep sinking to the lowest level which negatively impacts everyone in all sorts of ways.
Many years prior to this incident, there was a small, German, Roman Catholic church in downtown San Antonio, Texas that took a similar defiant stand. So the comparatively giant and taller Joeske's Department store built itself around the church on tall sides. The locals nicknamed the church Our Lady of Joeske's.
Joeske's is now closed, although it has been converted to other commercial space, but Our Lady of Joeske's still functions as a parish.
Joeske's is now closed, although it has been converted to other commercial space, but Our Lady of Joeske's still functions as a parish.
5
I grew up in San Antonio and have always loved this building. The Church is indeed beautiful and a great survivor of an older city, and with the major restructuring of the city in 1968 for HemisFair became even more prominent with the construction of the new convention center and theater across the street. But I must correct the commenter on the name of the department store—it is Joske's, not Joeske's. And has time has moved on, the Joske's building itself is now a relic of a lost time. Such juxtapositions are part of the charm of San Antonio, a city founded in the frontier wilderness in 1718, as they are in Seattle.
It reminds me of the home that was located next to the former Macy's building on Queens Boulevard in New York. That was in a similar situation as this one. But they apparently sold out eventually.
My wife's father's house, an architect-designed home built in 1968 in what was then the outskirts of Puerto Vallarta, now is the last domicile left on a busy commercial street carrying traffic out of town. The home is still beautiful and expansive, and when tourists would wander into the front courtyard, thinking it a gallery or something, my mother-in-law would cheerfully give them a free tour of the place! She died a few years ago, but her husband, now 86, hangs onto it because it reaffirms the daily patterns he has known for 50 years. I applaud him.
47
Another example can be found in Austin. The famous Broken Spoke dance hall on South Lamar is now surrounded by one of the mixed-use developments that are taking over every square inch of the "hip" enclaves. I don't know the specifics of what happened there, but it is an odd sight--a pleasingly rundown honky tonk surrounded by soaring brick, cement and shops with wry, ironic names.
3
It seems like developers have a magnet attraction anything that is old, pretty, or well-loved. Around here, people are always fighting to keep them from tearing down historic buildings and wooded areas, which get replaced with ugly concrete buildings. In the meantime, areas that really could be replaced, such as old industrial areas and blighted city blocks, are ignored unless local government gives them large tax breaks and other amenities.
60
This was an old industrial area.
2
That's the problem when we don't teach people to value things, they think nothing of destroying them.
1
Perhaps so. But it was clearly an industrial area with blue-collar housing integrated into it. This is a plan house - it was not built an isolated structure in the middle of an industrial zone. There may have been several blocks of virtually identical structures in this particular area.
Aside from the sentimental value the house held for it's owner, there is a larger discussion here being missed. The love of the single family residence (SFR) versus greater housing density. SFR's are the creator of urban sprawl. Most neighborhoods comprised of SFR's, even if they were built at the turn of the 20th century, did not have enough close commercial conveniences to be entirely walkable. Cars and public transportation (i.e. air pollution) are also needed to make these neighborhoods viable to live. New developments are the result of cities, via wiser zoning, creating greater density to reduce the need of cars. Granted the new buildings in this article are architecturally and aesthetically ugly, but that's another issue.
I live in a neighborhood of bungalows built in 1900-1930's, in the inner city. Like countless other American cities with beautiful old housing stock, I still need a car to run basic errands. The suburbs started even at the turn of the 20th century.
I live in a neighborhood of bungalows built in 1900-1930's, in the inner city. Like countless other American cities with beautiful old housing stock, I still need a car to run basic errands. The suburbs started even at the turn of the 20th century.
1
I would say that your commenting name says all we need to know about the basis of your comment.
1
I've been staying in Vancouver for the last few months. The city of my childhood has been completely torn down and replaced with massive glass boxes to house hordes of people coming from mostly Asia, but also other countries. All the small houses are for sale and will be replaced by condos that are so poorly constructed they need to be torn down or repaired within 20 years. All of the tall buildings pretty much look the same and all but a few are uniformly ugly. Real estate is so expensive that most Vancouverites have been pushed out. Demographics have shifted dramatically and there is actually an argument about whether Chinese signs have to include English. This once lovely, laid back city has become more expensive than New York, clogged with traffic and unless you are a millionaire, impossible to live in.
10
She had wealth beyond her understanding, much like the American Indian had in their great plains. As society inexorably grows though, it appears that the wealth has to be shared and the house and the plains had to go.
3
Here's a link to the virtual tour with drone footage. It's quite incredible to see this house from the air.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNMxpu7nobE
You can also search "Edith Macefield House Tour".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNMxpu7nobE
You can also search "Edith Macefield House Tour".
What a nightmare it must have been to live there,during the 2.5 -3 years of groundbreaking and construction,noise,truck traffic,deliveries,debris and construction workers.....not the way I want to spend my golden years.....
3
In 1942, Virginia Lee Burton published what was to become the children's literature classic The Little House: Her Story, a fictional account of the "life" of a cottage. 73 years later we have the factual account of the "life" of a cottage, 'Up' House. Not a dime's worth of difference between the two narratives; everything changes constantly, but nothing changes much--pity.
11
A mutual friend had the best idea about this:
I think the mall should buy it, restore it with the movie theme, and have it be a place for parents to take their kids to rest and play. But at the very least, someone should buy it and restore it. And of course, have a plaque for the woman who lived there.
I think the mall should buy it, restore it with the movie theme, and have it be a place for parents to take their kids to rest and play. But at the very least, someone should buy it and restore it. And of course, have a plaque for the woman who lived there.
27
I remember well the house in Elmhurst surrounded by Macy's. It still puts a smile on my face. Thanks for the Times article.
4
Was going to post about that house too, but you beat me to it. Also, on the corner of 30 Rock, the building that used to house the restaurant Hurley's still remains after all these decades.
1
Years ago I lived in a street that was "turning over". Old Cape Cods were being torn down in exchange for gleaming McMansions. Now let me say this up front: the McMansions looked better. They were prettier, grander and gave the street an identity that the old houses didn't. The street was growing a new identity and it was prettier than it's previous incantation.
There was an old couple on our street who had lived there for for 50 years. The first time I met the husband, he told me "You people are ruining our street and you are therefore, ruining our lives." I took one look at him hauling around an oxygen tank and concluded he had other reasons for being mad.
He did me a favor, though.
Through new eyes, I looked at our street and saw what he saw: the inevitable march of time. As we were working with our architect and pouring over house plans. his world literally being paved over before his eyes. They had raised a family on that street and now every memory, every event was being covered over, brick by brick, house by house, plot by plot. Most of us can imagine a future without us; he was being forced to watch his being built.
...and THAT is what I think about when I see this house and I can't help but applaud it. For all the time and energy we place on our existence, can't we pretend for at least a century or so that we matter?
Or should we not take our trials and tribulations quite as seriously?
PS. They died within the year; the house was torn down. :-(
There was an old couple on our street who had lived there for for 50 years. The first time I met the husband, he told me "You people are ruining our street and you are therefore, ruining our lives." I took one look at him hauling around an oxygen tank and concluded he had other reasons for being mad.
He did me a favor, though.
Through new eyes, I looked at our street and saw what he saw: the inevitable march of time. As we were working with our architect and pouring over house plans. his world literally being paved over before his eyes. They had raised a family on that street and now every memory, every event was being covered over, brick by brick, house by house, plot by plot. Most of us can imagine a future without us; he was being forced to watch his being built.
...and THAT is what I think about when I see this house and I can't help but applaud it. For all the time and energy we place on our existence, can't we pretend for at least a century or so that we matter?
Or should we not take our trials and tribulations quite as seriously?
PS. They died within the year; the house was torn down. :-(
112
In your eyes McMansions looked "prettier", and "grander", but to many eyes, McMansions are eyes sores. They are aesthetically unappealing, they reflect excess, they have no connection to the natural environment. They are put up quick and easy, not carefully. They are made of plastic and vinyl and they have an aura of falseness. Just one example- windows are made to LOOK LIKE they are 6 individual panes framed in wood,but truthfully, the window is really one pane with a plastic overlay.
To some people, the older homes are aesthetically more pleasing and feel better on every level.
To some people, the older homes are aesthetically more pleasing and feel better on every level.
6
As a witness to the building of multiple McMansions in an historic location in the upper midwest your comment that they "look better" is in the eye of the beholder. They do NOT! The locals refer to them as monuments to conspicuous consumption as most belong to the 1% as one of many like residences elsewhere, occasionally inhabited depending on the season or whim of the owner. Charming neighborhoods are no longer valued!
4
The inevitable march of time? You are a coward. It isn't the "march of time" that makes these decisions. We do.
4
It is a shame that any zoning ordinances didn't protect their right to see sunlight and sky. In this progressive city, to be allowed to block the sun, is kin to being able to turn off a neighbors power.
8
A memorial to property rights and an anti/memorial to the wrong headed Kelo decision. It doesn't matter what what her reasons were for not selling. They were her reasons and it was her property. Kelo not withstanding, commercial development is not the "public purpose" for which the founders allowed the forced sale of private property
10
With the proliferation of McMansions across the country, the Macefield house stands as a testament to sanity against this onslaught of greed and hubris.
15
Ms. Macefield's house is an ink blot test for onlookers and readers everywhere, with most telling more about themselves than they do about her, of which only a little bit is known. She willed the house to Barry Martin, who was the construction manager of one of the projects being built around her house, and he ended up befriending her in her old age by offering to help her. He once took her to a hair appointment. He later wrote a book about his experiences called 'Under One Roof', which is still available.
People here are saying all sorts of stuff that is false, or only half true about how Americans lived in the past in small houses near to where they lived. It's been the same story in America since colonial times. If you got prosperous, you built a big, fancy house for you and your family. You can still see these houses in New England towns. Sometimes your big house was near where you worked, but cheaper land was always farther away from the town square and so the surrounding countryside became populated, with hand-wringing even then about local farms disappearing, with all the same concerns people still talk about today.
Seattle came late to this whole party. It wasn't even established until the 1850s, and has always had a boom-and-bust nature about it, with timber, the Alaskan gold rush, and later Boeing all growing, then declining. Microsoft is next on this list.
36
My family is 3rd generation Seattle, 5th generation Washington State. My grandfather and his 4 sisters lived within walking distance of each other in Seattle all their lives. My grandmothers sister lived in Kirkland.
All cities have bust and boom cycles, but that doesn't mean families moved away from each other.
Today, my family has moved out of Seattle entirely. The building boom is hideous, the traffic is mismanaged, and the politics are all about spending spending spending but not fixing problems.
Every city park is full of vagrants, drinking and peeing in public, passed out on lawns, drug dealers and drug users. That is certainly not the family Seattle that I want to be around.
Seattle was a wonderful place and time. Today, the name Seattle doesn't mean anything wonderful, except the views created by mother nature still are the best in the world.
All cities have bust and boom cycles, but that doesn't mean families moved away from each other.
Today, my family has moved out of Seattle entirely. The building boom is hideous, the traffic is mismanaged, and the politics are all about spending spending spending but not fixing problems.
Every city park is full of vagrants, drinking and peeing in public, passed out on lawns, drug dealers and drug users. That is certainly not the family Seattle that I want to be around.
Seattle was a wonderful place and time. Today, the name Seattle doesn't mean anything wonderful, except the views created by mother nature still are the best in the world.
I don't see Seattle declining. With Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia, Google, Facebook all growing in the area things are only going to get better. The house is just a reflection of another time. I don't get sentimental about it, to me it's really a reflection of the women who owned it, not the city as a whole.
The house should be moved rather than destroyed, then used as a museum.
1
In 1942, Virginia Lee Burton won a Caldecott medal for the children's story, "The Little House." In that story, the country cottage that become engulfed by development is saved by being moved out into the country again. Is there any chance this house, which is a powerful symbol of what we value, could be moved? It sounds as if people might be happy to pitch in and make that happen. Another similar story for children is "Mike Mulligan's Steam Shovel."
Nice to see NYT shining a light on Ms. Macefield's stand.
Nice to see NYT shining a light on Ms. Macefield's stand.
6
What about making a "vest pocket" park in the space as a tribute to Mrs. Macefield?
7
I remember visiting Seattle, the Emerald City,
back when they held the World's Fair in 1962.
The Space Needle and the Monorail were the future then.
[ Jetson's anyone ? ]
Seattle was a very pretty place.
Now it is more and more a concrete jungle.
That there were Macefield's in the World.
back when they held the World's Fair in 1962.
The Space Needle and the Monorail were the future then.
[ Jetson's anyone ? ]
Seattle was a very pretty place.
Now it is more and more a concrete jungle.
That there were Macefield's in the World.
1
I don't think this house is actually a bungalow. But it could be fixed up as a monument to individualism. Blips in the streetscape makes it more interesting.
3
The surrounding slate grey buildings perfectly match the most reliable hue of the sky in Seattle. The lead picture would be perfect had it been raining. Where can one send a donation toward a paint job for this little thumb in the eye of Seattle developers? Sky blue with white trim would put a smile on most people's lips and hope in their hearts. At least temporarily.
10
Create a legacy. Maximize and fill space. Narrow the sidewalks. Narrow streets to one-lane. Unfilled space insults commerce. Do not fear; a Republican will contribute his mite, lending or leasing a bulldozer. When all is said and done, Portland loses taxes; zoning functionaries hurt seeing the house affect the appearance of its magnificent neighbors.
2
When I was little in the 1940's and '50's, I had this children's book about a sweet little house in a neighborhood with trees and pretty nature. Gradually, development started building up around the house and eventually it became surrounded with ugly huge buildings like the ones in the picture of this article. The little house was all sad and abandoned.
Then, one day someone saw the little house, felt sorry for it and loved it. They moved the little house to a new pretty location and all was happy again! I think the name of the book was simply "The Little House".
I wonder if anyone else remembers this book.
Then, one day someone saw the little house, felt sorry for it and loved it. They moved the little house to a new pretty location and all was happy again! I think the name of the book was simply "The Little House".
I wonder if anyone else remembers this book.
9
Yes! We still read that book, it by Virginia Lee Burton, who also wrote Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel.
We sure do, John. I commented on it.
I remember that book, too, and immediately thought if it when I saw this story. Wikipedia describes a 1942 book, "The Little House," by Virginia Lee Burton, that looks like what we remember. It's available on amazon.
The world is moving very fast. Faster than anyone could have envisioned as recent as 50 Years ago. This bungalow and everything around it will barely be a memory in another 50 years, yet the overwhelming sentiment is how righteous the owner was in her defiance? There really in no there, here. And vice-versa. The best use is to demolish it (as ocb board is wont to disintegrate) and create a small meditation garden, for meditation amidst the towering cacophony will be the best and highest use.
27
Why can't the gardens be built surrounding the house and the house used for meditation, rehab or something similar. The cement walls surround the house can be painted with outdoor scenery to make them more palatable.
1
That kind of thinking is similar to barbarians that do not see the splendor in antiquities such as the Islamic State that destroyed the historical museum pieces.
If you can't appreciate the old then you cannot appreciate the art of creating a masterpiece.
If you can't appreciate the old then you cannot appreciate the art of creating a masterpiece.
So what, she didn't want to sell to the developer. It was her right not to sell, as the owner. Many people grow attached to their homes, and can't imagine living anywhere else. I am not surprised however, about the vindictiveness of the developer; he made sure the view out her windows was as ugly as possible.
4
not blind opposition to progress but opposition to blind progress
so the saying goes- America needs learn to use it landscape for progress but in away that does not destroy the environment and what the community holds near and dear.
so the saying goes- America needs learn to use it landscape for progress but in away that does not destroy the environment and what the community holds near and dear.
4
"You want to maximize the space." It looks pretty large just the way it is.
3
There was a not dissimilar situation that existed in Rahway, NJ until at least 2009. A small house was directly across the street from Merck's research campus and was the last one standing after all the others had sold out. The house was completely surrounded by either an electrical substation or Merck parking lots. The company had put a wall on its side property line on three sides, like in the picture.
1
Why does everything "old" need to be torn down?
In NYC, neighborhoods of sweet 4 storey buildings are being destroyed to build 100 storey megaliths that are ugly, cumbersome, and certainly, aiding in the overcrowding of an already stretched infrastructure.
Why? Landlord greed.
In NYC, neighborhoods of sweet 4 storey buildings are being destroyed to build 100 storey megaliths that are ugly, cumbersome, and certainly, aiding in the overcrowding of an already stretched infrastructure.
Why? Landlord greed.
10
I wish I would have known Edith Macefield. She held on to her convictions, took a stand, and dug in her heels. She left the house with her toes up, as she probably intended. Bravo!
6
And the moral is: corporations always win in the United States of Cash.
6
Funny how on one side there's an LA Fitness place--a monument to a city where no one walks and a gym is seen as essential to remaining fit and on the other side a Ross Dress for Less--a monument to cheap, ugly wear once or twice and throw away clothing and in the middle, a little house that an owner once loved. Love--that's what you'll never find regarding the kinds of ugly buildings and soulless stores that replaced a neighborhood.
14
Make it into a city park with benches to sit upon and think..... how big the world, how small the me.
6
Maybe I missed it, but I'm surprised no one's mentioned the 1950 Bugs Bunny cartoon "Homeless Hare" and the 1954 "No Parking Hare," both of which feature Bugs successfully refusing to lose his home to development.
6
Many have said they can't see what this woman gained by refusing to sell. Maybe all she wanted was to spend her last days in a house she had grown to love? Is that such a bad thing?
116
Just refusing to do what one is told to do, particularly by a big bully, is its own reward. It's been the essence of my life, and this makes me so happy.
13
Yeah. Possibly doesn't occur to people anymore that there could be someone not looking to 'gain' anything. Contentment. What a concept.
3
Perhaps "gaining" is the crux of it - she wasn't interested in "gain", she just wanted to be at home.
1
For all the celebration of Ms. Macefield, I can't escape the conclusion that her actions were ego driven and that she must have suffered terribly for such attachment. This story made me sad.
3
Of course her actions were ego-driven. So what? Ms. Macefield had a strong ego--a sense of herself, in other words--and knew no other way than to be strong in the face of corporate bullying. Have you never taken a stand, Richard?
10
And you don't think the drive by developers to build yet another bland office tower or commercial retail space for even more national chain stores and incredibly awful restaurants that no one really needs isn't driven by ego as well?
Compare such streets in the USA with such streets in Europe and you'll see the difference between a country that builds crap simply because it can make money and those that have a sense of its own culture and history.
Her message was "I don't want your money. I own this house and I have as much right to continue owning it and living in it as you have to build your office tower." I, for one, salute her.
Compare such streets in the USA with such streets in Europe and you'll see the difference between a country that builds crap simply because it can make money and those that have a sense of its own culture and history.
Her message was "I don't want your money. I own this house and I have as much right to continue owning it and living in it as you have to build your office tower." I, for one, salute her.
6
"Ego driven" sounds like a very poor conclusion on your part. Perhaps being in her 80's she decided she wasn't up for relocation and just wanted to spend her final years inside a home she obviously loved.
3
Can't there be a high rise building above the house with just pillars around the house like in a car park? That way, the house could also be preserved.
3
good idea, and it would be a great tourist attraction, possibly even a great business decision... does Seattle have density-bonus transferring?
The woman owned the air rights above her house.
If there ever was proof of American 'exceptionalism,' this is one: a monument to individual resistance and free will.
Let the memory of Edith Macefield endure as a cultural icon. That 'We the People' celebrate individualism; and, that greedy corporations are not people — despite what thousands of Mitt Romney clones may say!
Let the memory of Edith Macefield endure as a cultural icon. That 'We the People' celebrate individualism; and, that greedy corporations are not people — despite what thousands of Mitt Romney clones may say!
26
I thought this story sounded cool then looked up the house on Google Maps and now think she probably should have taken the million dollars. To see it, and the neighborhood it's in, and a better view of the surrounding buildings, type Edith Macefield House into Google Maps. Context, in this case, makes a big difference.
1
I just did as you suggested. Not sure how that changes things...the neighbourhood is exactly as I expected according to the pics and the article descriptions: huge, concrete-and-steel and very much in the bustle of modern Seattle. That's precisely why it's a cool story.
@Adele: "... huge, concrete-and-steel ..."
You must have been looking in the wrong place. The buildings are five stories and there are no taller ones in the immediate area. Try doing a Google Maps search for "Edith Macefield House" and then switching to Google Street View:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Edith+Macefield+House/
Anyway, that area is commercial. For residential, search for "Woodland Park Zoo".
You must have been looking in the wrong place. The buildings are five stories and there are no taller ones in the immediate area. Try doing a Google Maps search for "Edith Macefield House" and then switching to Google Street View:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Edith+Macefield+House/
Anyway, that area is commercial. For residential, search for "Woodland Park Zoo".
My God, people! Don't you just see a museum in this place? A celebration of rebelliousness and how the all-mighty dollar doesn't rule everything. Could save the house, space, and serve the public as well. This would also give her the perfect memorial. Food for thought (although I know I couldn't have been the only one to think of this).
11
...yes indeed, it could be on the ground floor of an infill building; an imaginative architect could restore and preserve the house with a glazed street facade and all the modern steely offices could be on the 10 or 20 or 80 floors above it...inside the house could be a small museum devoted to the history of downtown seattle and a commemoration of Edith Macefield.
1
In my town something like this happened 20 yrs or more ago; people made comments about how foolish the owner was. Now the Victorian building has been repaired, remodeled into a quaint real estate office.
In Manhattan, on the corner of Ave of the Americas (6th ave) and 49th st, is a bar that wouldn't give in to the Rockefeller Plaza builders. It's a chance of feeling we can stop time, exert control. Unfortunately, we can't: more people equals more housing, more offices for these new workers, more homes for these new workers. In other words, progress. Many are nostalgic for the good old days, without realizing they were also the bad old days. Heavy manual labor, women treated unequally, segregation, dead horses bloating in the streets, polio, TB, stifiiing tenaments, child labor.
The example of this building is a railing against progress, the feeling of helplessness, the inability to control our lives. Luddites, anyone?
In Manhattan, on the corner of Ave of the Americas (6th ave) and 49th st, is a bar that wouldn't give in to the Rockefeller Plaza builders. It's a chance of feeling we can stop time, exert control. Unfortunately, we can't: more people equals more housing, more offices for these new workers, more homes for these new workers. In other words, progress. Many are nostalgic for the good old days, without realizing they were also the bad old days. Heavy manual labor, women treated unequally, segregation, dead horses bloating in the streets, polio, TB, stifiiing tenaments, child labor.
The example of this building is a railing against progress, the feeling of helplessness, the inability to control our lives. Luddites, anyone?
5
Something just like this occurred in Elmhurst, Queens in 1965.
Macy's was building a new store on Queens Boulevard between 55th and 56th Avenues. The building was to be round, with an outer ring of parking garage.
A small part of that parking ring impinged on the back yard of a house on 55th Avenue owned by a Mary Sondek. She refused to sell. Macy's modified the design by making a notch in the parking ring.
The notch is clearly visible in satellite images for 8801 Queens Blvd, Elmhurst, NY 11373 (or latitude/longitude 40.735963, -73.875110).
There was also a story in the NY Times:
http://nyti.ms/1CKN5lj
Macy's was building a new store on Queens Boulevard between 55th and 56th Avenues. The building was to be round, with an outer ring of parking garage.
A small part of that parking ring impinged on the back yard of a house on 55th Avenue owned by a Mary Sondek. She refused to sell. Macy's modified the design by making a notch in the parking ring.
The notch is clearly visible in satellite images for 8801 Queens Blvd, Elmhurst, NY 11373 (or latitude/longitude 40.735963, -73.875110).
There was also a story in the NY Times:
http://nyti.ms/1CKN5lj
9
Ms. Macefield continued to live in her house; the 6th and 49th townhouse and the building at 34th and Broadway clipping the corner of Macy's exist because of business decisions.
(According to Daniel Okrent's "Great Fortune" the owner of the Rock Center establishment enjoyed a strong business from the construction workers.)
(According to Daniel Okrent's "Great Fortune" the owner of the Rock Center establishment enjoyed a strong business from the construction workers.)
1
Some of those terrible things you mention, it seems to me the GOP would love to bring back, for sure child labor and segregation, and women are still treated unequally, the only they have removed is the dead horses in the streets, and my guess they might be against regulations on that.
In any commercial development, there will always be one homeowner who will hold out to the last, hoping to double the sellout price. It’s not because they’re stubborn” or fighting commercialism. It’s because they’re greedy, plus they enjoy the publicity and attention.
This house is an example of a homeowner who held just a bit too long, hoping for a better deal.
This house is an example of a homeowner who held just a bit too long, hoping for a better deal.
1
Don't you listen, didn't you read the description of Edith Masefield's attitude? Not everyone has the same mentality as YOU -- you are projecting.
35
I always find it mildly annoying when someone makes a assumption's about another person's motivation with no basis to do so.
41
You clearly have not followed this story and do not understand the situation. She held out not for a higher price. She held out. FULL STOP.
12
Deja voo all over again. One of my favorite places in NYC to get a beer and people watch was and is PJ Clarks. The stand against huge financial interests with this home and PF Clarks is something to behold.
The first time I went into the john at PF's and saw ice in the urinal - wonder if ice is still used. Traditions like this are important to keep!
The first time I went into the john at PF's and saw ice in the urinal - wonder if ice is still used. Traditions like this are important to keep!
2
Those buildings that surround the little house are the tragedy. They're putting a hurt on my eyes from here. Seattle used to be so beautiful. And I bet the "architect" and builders high-fived each other upon completion.
25
I lived in Seattle about 30 years ago. It was never beautiful.
2
"Those buildings that surround the little house are the tragedy."
Take a look at what was across the street in the Oct 2007 Google Street View. It appears to be a cannery.
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.662205,-122.375424,3a,90y,70.09h,92.07t/...!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sLsdpRJGQO1HiVcj989QXjA!2e0?hl=en
Take a look at what was across the street in the Oct 2007 Google Street View. It appears to be a cannery.
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.662205,-122.375424,3a,90y,70.09h,92.07t/...!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sLsdpRJGQO1HiVcj989QXjA!2e0?hl=en
Why would they do that? This sort of success to them is commonplace, a given, unremarkable. Mrs Macefield may be remembered to them as a blip, a brief annoyance that went away. Money does that to people. Success on their part was never in doubt. A wad of cash almost always washes away inhibitions and scruples. If nothing else Mrs Macefield showed, however fleetingly, that sparks of humanity can flare in the least likely places. Hopefully, some people will remember that.
How did we get here from there? Once upon a time we had enough space for everyone one of us to have a cute little house like this. And now there are so many of us on this planet, and so many who have to live in the city because we can no longer sustain ourselves anyplace else.
So year by year goes by. The billions on the planet keep having children who all just want to live somehow, and who can blame them. So up we go. We make room for ourselves however we can and very few look around to see how all of these little personal decisions eventually add up to a nightmarish dystopia where the planet has been devoured, where only skyscrapers are high enough to penetrate the toxic smog. Ever higher we go, one generation at a time, just making do, just trying to survive.
One tiny house left alone in a canyon of concrete. Just a relic of once upon a time. If we think all this is inevitable, we are seriously underestimating the power of our imagination, both individually and collectively. Dream and make it so.
So year by year goes by. The billions on the planet keep having children who all just want to live somehow, and who can blame them. So up we go. We make room for ourselves however we can and very few look around to see how all of these little personal decisions eventually add up to a nightmarish dystopia where the planet has been devoured, where only skyscrapers are high enough to penetrate the toxic smog. Ever higher we go, one generation at a time, just making do, just trying to survive.
One tiny house left alone in a canyon of concrete. Just a relic of once upon a time. If we think all this is inevitable, we are seriously underestimating the power of our imagination, both individually and collectively. Dream and make it so.
119
It is not always many people but a few people who want "everything". How many 10,000 0r 30,000 sg ft "homes" do a few people living there need?
4
I think this is a great story too. But cities and density are much better for the planet in the long run. They share resources and infrastructure (like plumbing, electrical, roads) which require less to build and maintain, people drive less, and there's a confluence of ideas. Per capita, urban dwellers simply require less infrastructure over time. I love the ideas of cities with single family homes, but it's not sustainable in the long run. I love that Macefield held out though.
Yes, we should go back to subsistence living, growing our own food and killing animals for consumption only when absolutely necessary.
I absolutely love how Liberals put down what "we" have become as human beings and then turn around and do exactly what they have criticized.
I would hope that the nightmarish dystopia is something that is still within our grasp to prevent. Maybe if we were to put all of living things under the control of a central governing body which made right decisions, a collective morality.
I absolutely love how Liberals put down what "we" have become as human beings and then turn around and do exactly what they have criticized.
I would hope that the nightmarish dystopia is something that is still within our grasp to prevent. Maybe if we were to put all of living things under the control of a central governing body which made right decisions, a collective morality.
1
Rather than keep this old beat up house, she could have taken the $1,000,000 and spent her remaining years living nicely. There are so many of these hold outs trying to save something that has no value.
4
Rrrrrrrrr. Not all values are monetary.
24
Imagine all the free stuff she could have given away with the million dollars instead of greedily hoarding it for herself
2
It was valuable to her. That is what the "free" market is SUPPOSEDLY about. SHw was not a "holdout". She was a property owner free to do as SHE pleases
7
I also thought of Virginia Burton's "The Little House" which I read to my little boy at times here in Istanbul. I was curious to read that the Engin family made a trip just to see this example of a hold-out from commercial development and Big Box stores. Asuman Hanim might do well to bring her children back to Istanbul to see how unchecked commercial development has essentially ruined this remarkable city, changed its historical skyline forever, and displaced many moderate to low income people who cannot afford the "luxury" properties and shopping malls that are overwhelming this ancient metropolis. Or, perhaps that is why she and her husband left...?
18
I'm glad that despite over 30 years of Reaganomics, sometimes might doesn't get to make right.
I am reminded of the recent case of the oil company executive who was a strong supporter of fracking --- as long as his own personal house wasn't involved.
I am reminded of the recent case of the oil company executive who was a strong supporter of fracking --- as long as his own personal house wasn't involved.
53
Thank God we had 30 years of Reagonomics. As no matter how much you deny it it works. It continued to work until Clinton decided to make the banks loan money to bad credit people. The downhill spiral began with him but of course a liberal would never acknowledge that fact. What this statement has to do with a little house between two buildings is beyond me though. Another illogical liberal statement.
3
I find it interesting that in a left leaning city you would celebrate a single family hold-out. I think cities should be building apartment towers like they do in Seoul or Taipei or Singapore. I've lived in Seoul and visited Singapore, they're both lovely cities. I don't know what the fault lines are like in the Seattle area, but NYC could certainly use it.
Nobody but the totally uninformed think there's even an ounce of truth to your "fact" concerning the financial crisis. Those poor bankers! Forced by the big bad gub'mint! Poor babies!
2
Astounding - we don't want urban sprawl with the tracts of cookie-cutter houses and the traffic/commute disasters.
Yet - at the same time - we condemn the sort of dense urban building that allows folks to live within walking distance of downtown.
More magical thinking from the masses.
Yet - at the same time - we condemn the sort of dense urban building that allows folks to live within walking distance of downtown.
More magical thinking from the masses.
13
SteveRR--Read it again--under current zoning law it is ILLEGAL to build housing (however dense) in this district, it is zoned purely commercial. This is precisely the type of law that segregates places by use, preventing anyone from living near work. But you're right that it might take "magic" to do something as easy as change the paradigm of zoning laws.
24
Ballard, the Seattle neighborhood this house is in, is not within reasonable walking distance of downtown Seattle. It would take most people at least an hour to reach it on foot.
At the same time, Ballard, a former sleepy mostly residential community housing Seattle's massive fishing industry, has seen massive apartment building construction over the past 15 years to help deal with Seattle's growing population, yet had not been provided with the transportation infrastructure to support such growth.
You really should know what you're talking about before spouting off.
At the same time, Ballard, a former sleepy mostly residential community housing Seattle's massive fishing industry, has seen massive apartment building construction over the past 15 years to help deal with Seattle's growing population, yet had not been provided with the transportation infrastructure to support such growth.
You really should know what you're talking about before spouting off.
19
There isn't even any residential use allowed by the zoning on this spot. That is not dense, urban development, that is an overblown a strip mall.
2
I can't see the view from this house, but judging from the photo, the land doesn't look like a special spot.
If you ask me, some defiance is just plain stupid. And that's a lesson worth learning. If someone offered me a million dollars for that little shack, I'd accept the fact that change happens, and I would set myself up somewhere much nicer, or rent a nice apartment and travel the world.
What is the point of staying put while commercial interests build around you? The loss of light alone would cause me such severe depression, no amount of money could cure the ills that my defiance wrought.
Defiance can be good as long as both sides win in a negotiation. I fail to see how Edith Macefield won anything here.
If you ask me, some defiance is just plain stupid. And that's a lesson worth learning. If someone offered me a million dollars for that little shack, I'd accept the fact that change happens, and I would set myself up somewhere much nicer, or rent a nice apartment and travel the world.
What is the point of staying put while commercial interests build around you? The loss of light alone would cause me such severe depression, no amount of money could cure the ills that my defiance wrought.
Defiance can be good as long as both sides win in a negotiation. I fail to see how Edith Macefield won anything here.
11
You fail to see how Edith Macefield won anything here, but you are not Edith Macefield. Your whole post is a projection of what you would do. How you would feel.
I imagine myself as Edith Macefield in a completely different way. I am old. I have lived in my tiny house my entire life. I love it here. Much of my life has now turned inward. The outside world no longer matters so much to me. I have my little nick knacks on the shelf. My TV and radio over there. My sofa with the same doilies. My life - still surrounds me. I don't even care what's outside the window anymore.
What do I need with a million dollars? I can move into a modern, clean. sterile place that has no relevance to my life? No thank you. I think I will stay put. After I die? Do what you will.
So that's my projection and it may have nothing in common with what Edith Macefield actually thought, but I daresay it might be a wee bit closer to the truth of it.
I imagine myself as Edith Macefield in a completely different way. I am old. I have lived in my tiny house my entire life. I love it here. Much of my life has now turned inward. The outside world no longer matters so much to me. I have my little nick knacks on the shelf. My TV and radio over there. My sofa with the same doilies. My life - still surrounds me. I don't even care what's outside the window anymore.
What do I need with a million dollars? I can move into a modern, clean. sterile place that has no relevance to my life? No thank you. I think I will stay put. After I die? Do what you will.
So that's my projection and it may have nothing in common with what Edith Macefield actually thought, but I daresay it might be a wee bit closer to the truth of it.
41
What's outside the window is, at least on Google Earth,
a view of boats in the harbor, partially obstructed by a blob
of something very odd.
a view of boats in the harbor, partially obstructed by a blob
of something very odd.
1
DO you believe in private property and the free market? It is not just for corporations who are now "people" too. You don't have to "see" what she won.
This is not a new issue. Some 60 years ago, a children's author by the name of Virginia Lee Burton wrote a book called "The Little House", which told a similar story of a once little house in the country that over time was encroached upon by ever growing development, until in the end, it was surrounded, just like this house in Seattle, by huge skyscrapers. The story had a happy ending, as children's stories should, in that the Little House was relocated at the end to the country again. Perhaps there is a nice plot of land somewhere waiting for this Little House in Seattle.
14
I find the resemblance of the real photograph to The Little House at the climax of the story quite striking. All that is missing from the Seattle house is an elevated railway line. Interesting, regarding progress, that references are made only to the Disney "Up" house instead of The Little House. I like your thought that there might be a happy ending here as well.
4
Has anyone thought to keep the house, renovate the inside, spruce up the outside and make it a office, independently owned store, restaurant? You don't need to continue to move up. I suspect that the seller who wants a memorial to Mrs. Macefield would love to see it spruced up but kept as is and may sell at a resonable price. Who knows what the possibilities could be.
16
It would be an amazingly interesting restaurant, music, lots-of-possibilities... but realistically, to make the numbers work in the market econocmy, the new ownerw would have to build over it...which should be absolutley possible.
1
It's a default sale so the seller will be the financial institution, so realistically, it will be priced for a high-rise development. But it can be win-win for both business and for those who like the human/heritage aspect: convert it into a restaurant or museum and then build *above* it. The house can be encased in a glazed foyer on the ground floor of an infill highrise. Everybody benefits and Ms. Macefield's values are commemorated.
1
Do we really need to know why she stood her ground? Maybe there's value in not knowing for sure. Kind of like with abstract art-- you walk up to it, stare, wonder what the artist was thinking, and go away with your own interpretation.
However, it would be insightful to know how she was able to hold on to her property in modern times--was it really as easy as just refusing $1 million to vacate?
However, it would be insightful to know how she was able to hold on to her property in modern times--was it really as easy as just refusing $1 million to vacate?
13
It's those appallingly-ugly new buildings that should be torn down. What soul-less testaments to the emptiness of modern American life. Of course, if Edith Macefield had lived, she would have had the indispensable conveniences of a UPS store and La Fitness right at her doorstep. Dress for Life!
49
This would make a great Children's Book. It's a story of dignity and pride, and independence in the face of greed literally encroaching on one. In fact, it might be a more useful tale for adults!
5
Look up the The Little House by VIrginia Lee Burton.
Just sent this article to my kids, as this book was a favorite in our house.
Just sent this article to my kids, as this book was a favorite in our house.
5
Not quite the same story, but for a great children's book about a house that becomes surrounded by the city growing around it, check out The Little House, by Virginia Lee Burton, that won the Caldecott Medal in 1943.
5
thanks. I'll do so. @Laurie
“We want to help them understand that modernism is not always the best thing, that playing with the iPad is not always the best thing — that there are values to think about,” said Ms. Engin, 43, a Turkish immigrant who teaches English and math at Southwestern College.
What is of value to us… is not for debate. Then why do we look for our values to be appreciated?
Should worth of what we value be determined by if there is a heard flocking the same pastures???
With the current pace of atrophy of virtues… from places of faith, to local and large business establishments, to charitable institutions, to the halls of local bodies of government, anywhere we reside,… you, me and everyone who cares for them will increasingly be greatly outnumbered…
… but, voice of reason must be kept on… to give sanity a chance to survive… yet another day.
What is of value to us… is not for debate. Then why do we look for our values to be appreciated?
Should worth of what we value be determined by if there is a heard flocking the same pastures???
With the current pace of atrophy of virtues… from places of faith, to local and large business establishments, to charitable institutions, to the halls of local bodies of government, anywhere we reside,… you, me and everyone who cares for them will increasingly be greatly outnumbered…
… but, voice of reason must be kept on… to give sanity a chance to survive… yet another day.
1
Reminds me of the time a progressive president took over whole towns and flooded them. People tried to stay in the homes they lived in all their lives on land owned for generations. Progressives love it when the government forces you out (as long as its a Democrat initiative), hate it when a developer wants to pay above market price to provide buildings to support businesses.
5
There is a MAJOR difference between takings for the public good, even the broader public good, and taking for personal profit.
If it were not for the Tennessee Valley Authority, and similar in other places, many people in the states run by 21st century Republicans would be watching television by kerosene light.
If it were not for the Tennessee Valley Authority, and similar in other places, many people in the states run by 21st century Republicans would be watching television by kerosene light.
21
"...hate it when a developer wants to pay above market price to provide buildings to support businesses..."
Oh, those noble developers...what would we DO without such modern-day Robin Hoods?
Oh, those noble developers...what would we DO without such modern-day Robin Hoods?
How about those big companies that can't BUY what they want and then turn to local government to misuse eminent domain? Conservatives love "private property" and the "free market" until they can't get their way with money. BTW many of those developers don't want to even pay market value.
2
I live near this house. The photo in the article is a few years old. Now, the windows and balloons are gone and the house is boarded up: https://goo.gl/maps/YS1Bw (even that google streetview photo is a year old). Initially there were efforts to make something of the house, as many here have suggested, but when it came time to put down money, nothing ever came of it. She ended up leaving the house to the manager of the construction project that surrounded her as he treated her very well in her last years. Not sure how it went from his ownership to a mortgage default as the article describes.
82
The "default" sounds suspect.
4
I lived in Seattle for 10 years not that long ago and can't for the life of me recall hearing about this house. From the photo it appears to be facing the north-bound side of the Ballard Bridge, in the middle of a mostly commercial/shopping district that's still fairly gritty, not far from Seattle's huge commercial fishing center (I understand that around a third of the country's fresh fish comes through it each year). So, hardly a choice spot for a quiet little bungalow.
I myself would have held out long enough to sell it for as much as I could get, and used it to buy a much nicer property elsewhere in one of Seattle's many, many, many far more appealing residential neighborhoods, some very close to this house but a world away, such as Ballard proper, or--one of my faves--Sunset Hill. I'm guessing that this house never would have fetched quite enough for even a modest house in Blue Ridge, just a bit further north.
I myself would have held out long enough to sell it for as much as I could get, and used it to buy a much nicer property elsewhere in one of Seattle's many, many, many far more appealing residential neighborhoods, some very close to this house but a world away, such as Ballard proper, or--one of my faves--Sunset Hill. I'm guessing that this house never would have fetched quite enough for even a modest house in Blue Ridge, just a bit further north.
2
Interesting, Chas, how out-of-date this Times article is.
1
The leftist posters here: We hate business! (Just give us the money it makes.)
3
Leftist? Give us the money? I'm sorry, your bizarre notion here is a little incomprehensible.
So then, Rudy Rightist, how much would you pay for a sunset?
So then, Rudy Rightist, how much would you pay for a sunset?
17
TaXes dude!
And what about those "righties" who love the "free market" and "private property" until it stands in their way?
4
It saddened so many of us who see in that little house our own mortality. The world rushing on will always cast us aside. It has to be and ever more.
12
Looks like she won to me. She managed to live out her life in her own home. Something that many seniors want to do but are unable to. People today don't have the same values as those born before the 1900's. Back then most people owned their own home and small was just fine since the home wasn't filled with electronics and other have's. It was a place to eat and sleep and perhaps raise a family. You built it within walking distance to your job so there was no reason to move as long as you worked for the same business, which most did. All you needed nearby was a grocery store, drug store, perhaps a doctors office, and maybe a small department store or sears outlet. If you needed something else you caught the buss and rode to town. Today Houston stretches 20 to 30 miles outward from the center of downtown. As a boy I grew up way out in the country, almost downtown today. Over the last forty years I've moved twice. Each time 20 or more miles outward to get away from the crowding, traffic, and crime. As a senior I hope to be able to live out the rest of my life where my home is now and not have the metro area follow me home.
232
I"m surprised no on has mentioned the classic children's book "The Little House," by Virginia Burton in 1942 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_House) about a house squeezed in by office buildings until the descendants of its owners find it and move it to the country so it can breathe again. Burton apparently denied that it was about urban sprawl, but her illustrations say otherwise.
5
You forgot to say "get off my lawn!"
Did she really win? The neighborhood is gone. She is surrounded by grey concrete (likely displacing the suburban green). Imagine the noise and dirt of construction. Now look at her neighbors. IMO the only point she proved is that resistance is pointless. Her protest will stop nothing - better to just deal with the reality and not bother whining about it.
We had a similar story in Boston, in the old West End. There were a few buildings left standing as the virus that is development took root. They fought to stay in their homes for a long time and I loved going by and seeing those old brick buildings still standing. Won't ruin the ending for you.
So -- how did Mrs Engin get a job teaching math AND English at a college? And where is the petition to kick this Chris Philips out of Seattle? A spaceship might be good for him; he can practice maximizing space until the cows come home.
So -- how did Mrs Engin get a job teaching math AND English at a college? And where is the petition to kick this Chris Philips out of Seattle? A spaceship might be good for him; he can practice maximizing space until the cows come home.
5
The old West End fell to fashionable idealistic collectivism in the 50s and 60s though not retail capitalism.
1
Good for Edith Macefield! As for appropriately commemorating her in the new structure: Excavate it, build a new post-modern glass box, and place her old house smack dab on its top. Up!
18
In some parts of the country this property would have been seized by the govt as eminent domain and turned over to the developer in the interest of "the public good" (tax dollars). I'm glad that's not the case everywhere.
152
Good point. Although that usually happens with oil.
6
That is precisely what happened in De Pere, Wisconsin several years ago. The De Pere Greenhouse, the oldest greenhouse in the state established in 1898, was taken by eminent domain, along with the classic brick farmhouse of the family. The site now is covered by a large ugly four story office building with large parking lot.
The good news; the brick farmhouse was saved from demolition and restored by a UW-Green Bay professor who moved the home to a new location seven miles away.
The good news; the brick farmhouse was saved from demolition and restored by a UW-Green Bay professor who moved the home to a new location seven miles away.
7
New London, Conn. for instance. What a disgrace!
5
“I think it would make a great spot for a little infill building,” ... “You want to maximize the space.”
This says all you need to know about U.S. commerce today.
And presumably the establishment(s) that will go into the 600 sq. ft. is more of what flanks it. Just useless strip mall greed.
So sad.
This says all you need to know about U.S. commerce today.
And presumably the establishment(s) that will go into the 600 sq. ft. is more of what flanks it. Just useless strip mall greed.
So sad.
47
Such nice words; modernity, progress, efficient use of resources, renewal. Hogwash. It's all about profit. Let's allow a developer to make oodles of cash while destroying what was there before. A balance between rich developers and maintaining our neighborhoods would be, at a minimum, a good thing. But unfortunately, money speaks louder than history.
57
"old fool, blinded by stubbornness and unable to see that everything she loved would be destroyed no matter what"?
So much wrong with this opinion, hardly know where to start.
1. What she loved, apparently, was not money.
2. The human species' time on Earth has been fairly brief, and its epoch of unchecked development and exploitation of resources, blindingly brief. Which means, Mr/Ms Developer/Pragmatist/Cynic, that everything you love is also going to be destroyed, no matter what.
3. "unable"? "blinded" ?
"It is one thing to face music, quite another to dance to it." H.H. Munro (Saki), "When William Came."
PS Why is it sided with new OSB, if it's going to be torn down?
So much wrong with this opinion, hardly know where to start.
1. What she loved, apparently, was not money.
2. The human species' time on Earth has been fairly brief, and its epoch of unchecked development and exploitation of resources, blindingly brief. Which means, Mr/Ms Developer/Pragmatist/Cynic, that everything you love is also going to be destroyed, no matter what.
3. "unable"? "blinded" ?
"It is one thing to face music, quite another to dance to it." H.H. Munro (Saki), "When William Came."
PS Why is it sided with new OSB, if it's going to be torn down?
46
If you look on the web, it seems that a later owner ripped the house nearly apart and then it was left in its current state when he ran out of money.
"Ozymandias." Nothing lasts forever, including us. We can only hope the planet will remain, though that seems like the ultimate destruction.
3
Well Dandy, the planet can't remain. Our G3 star is on the normal age cycle and will lose power, expand to a red giant phase, and collapse to a white dwarf. Somewhere in there its radius will pass Earth's orbit and incinerate this place. Thankfully that's billions of years from now, so we still have time to head starward.
But one thing is for sure, we won't get any closer to the stars by building luxury buildings taller, nor by creating more Starbucks and La Fitnesses.
But one thing is for sure, we won't get any closer to the stars by building luxury buildings taller, nor by creating more Starbucks and La Fitnesses.
5
There is endless advice from people telling others what to do with their property. Few people willing to pool their own money to do anything about it.
5
Perhaps President Obama will use his statutory authority to declare the house a national monument.
2
President B. Obama: 194 (or 203) Executive Orders
President G. W. Bush: 291 Execitive Orders
President R. Reagan: 381 Executive Orders
"President Reagan and later President George H.W. Bush relied on this explicit authority (EO) when they unilaterally exempted roughly 1.5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation after passing a law granting amnesty to millions more."
President T. Roosevelt: 1081 Executive Orders
President F. D. Roosevelt: 3522 Executive Orders
President G. W. Bush: 291 Execitive Orders
President R. Reagan: 381 Executive Orders
"President Reagan and later President George H.W. Bush relied on this explicit authority (EO) when they unilaterally exempted roughly 1.5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation after passing a law granting amnesty to millions more."
President T. Roosevelt: 1081 Executive Orders
President F. D. Roosevelt: 3522 Executive Orders
5
I bet you pull out that talking point every chance that you get. You should be more concerned with private developers who abuse eminent domain along with local governments when they can't get their way with money. Those "conservative" developers who love "property rights and the "free market" only mean for themselves. Their money should trump everything else
How long have you been waiting to use that talking point? You should be more concerned with developers abusing private property rights with eminent domain
2
Too often American cities destroy their heritage, the beauty of an era for the 'modern' which is often devoid of noteworthy design. Art deco is ripped out for box stores, victorian houses destroyed for prison like brick apartments.
Woody Allan helped save some fantastic buildings in NYC which are presently vibrant living areas.
Who would think of flattening Nob hill for condos? Well, somebody would. Save and restore as well as new should be the theme, rather than crush kill destroy.
Woody Allan helped save some fantastic buildings in NYC which are presently vibrant living areas.
Who would think of flattening Nob hill for condos? Well, somebody would. Save and restore as well as new should be the theme, rather than crush kill destroy.
15
This reminds me of a children's book from long ago. In that one the house was moved to a different location.
7
The minute I saw the article, I thought the same thing. You're thinking of "The Little House," by Virginia Lee Burton. I highly recommend it!
7
This looks like a job for Bill Gates.
Turn the house into a museum.
Turn the house into a museum.
7
A museum is a great idea! It should honor not only Ms. Macefield, but other "stiffed necked" legends. The extreme contrast of this tiny house to the soulless, concrete behemoth neighbors is worth preserving. What a statement it makes to future generations. If this were a museum, I believe many more "balloon" people from around the world would make the pilgrimage.
Any benefactors (Gates or other) want to take up the challenge?
Any benefactors (Gates or other) want to take up the challenge?
6
As I gaze out to the west at a view of the Hudson River, shimmering with reflected dawn, I can see them working on a new luxury high rise condo to block it. Trump and his cronies build their wall between me and the sunset, spreading down the bank of the river like a curtain of masonry and iron. Someday inability to see the sky might drive me from my native city, and so I bless the owner of this stubborn house and all those in similar circumstances. I wish them the best and hope our better cities get some sense of aesthetics and proportion, rather than being driven by Republican real estate greed.
278
I'm here with you - lost my Hudson River views to two high rises recently. One is a huge rental by Related corp. one is a multimillion dollar per unit luxury condo. Years of pile driving, dust, noise, idling cement trucks. You can see our little building jammed between the two new ones if you're heading south down the West Side Highway on the "gold coast" of what was formerly an industrial artists haven. I have mixed feelings about the neighborhood changes but in the end none of it will last forever so I'll do what I need to do and go where I have to go to be comfortable in my own little blip of time. In the meantime property values go up which the neighbors love. I hope some of these old school artists cash out, it's hard to make a stand from a windowless apartment!
7
Republican greed? I will give you very long odds that at least 70% of the residents of those buildings voted for President Obama, and will vote for Hillary Clinton.
1
I don't really agree with you. NYC has some of the highest real estate prices in the world. Why not make it easier to build apartment towers like in Seoul or Singapore, etc. Lots of housing for people, especially in the outer boroughs. Make sure it is not a government job, too much graft and cost overruns. Give the companies the chance to win a bonus if they finish before the deadline. Lots of housing would open up for regular people and the costs would come down.
I just tore down a 1942 Bungalow just south of Detroit (watch the 3 minute time lapse below - turned out better than I expected) to build my modern, super energy efficient sprawling ranch monstrosity from concrete in ICF. I was a little sad to destroy a house built during WWII, probably for workers building B-24 bombers in Henry Ford's factory. While excavating the foundation, I wondered how did they dig the basement in 1942? Lots of guys with shovels? Caterpillar Inc. was only 19 years old - what kind of equipment did they have? What glacier compressed the clay under my footings 100,000 years ago, under ice a mile thick?
I hope 500 years from now home is still in the way of some developer's vision, and the contractor that tears it down losses money on the bid (I put steel fiber in the concrete - it will be a tough one to remove, but who knows what kind of equipment they will have in 2515 AD). In the end, the next ice-age in 20,000 years will wipe out any record of my monument. We are all but borrowing our little slice of the planet temporarily.
Demolition Time lapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgCVe8UpglM
I hope 500 years from now home is still in the way of some developer's vision, and the contractor that tears it down losses money on the bid (I put steel fiber in the concrete - it will be a tough one to remove, but who knows what kind of equipment they will have in 2515 AD). In the end, the next ice-age in 20,000 years will wipe out any record of my monument. We are all but borrowing our little slice of the planet temporarily.
Demolition Time lapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgCVe8UpglM
5
I watched your video, Tom Stolz, and it brought me to tears. I wonder how you reconcile your super-energy-efficient attitude with the disregard to tear down a home that could have been upgraded....or it least taken apart with more consideration. The windows could have been recycled, as well as the beautiful stone/brick. Reclaimed wood is being used in high-end homes as a popular building material. I own a 1936 Craftsman cottage. The brick foundation is also the outer wall of the basement which is semi-exposed on my sloping property. There is not a crack one in any of the walls or foundation. I have made the house energy efficient without throwing away the beautiful ambiance that the builder gave it in its setting on property that one time belonged to the Vanderbilts with mountain views. I wonder why you didn't build on a vacant lot or shop for a suitable "monument" that was already built. There is a wastefulness to always tearing down to build something new.....and the soul of the destroyed properties disappear as well. Does you new concrete and steel home have soul?
17
Didn't you ever read about Maryann the Steam Shovel?
1
why did you build a monstrosity?
6
Corporate America squashes little house to make way for some stupid business nobody really needs. Another example that corporations are not people or at least ones with a heart or soul.
189
government today serves corporations first.
1
I live in Ballard and I disagree. Most of what occupied the entire site was an eyesore and the project that was built is anchored by an LA Fitness Center and a Trader Joe's both of which are thriving businesses as well as several mom and pop businesses all popular with the locals. The industrial-commercial pocket where it is located is sadly in need of redevelopment and this project has been a catalyst for that redevelopment. The Macefield house was not on a residential street as one would normally envision one but on an arterial. Prior to the development it was surrounded by decrepit wood frame buildings that once served the maritime industry.
2
Let it stay there--looks eerily kind of pretty in contrast to the surrounding building.
In fact, you could fix it back up and lease as office space for say an art shop or sandwich shop or whatever.
The whole scene symbolizes what America is all about--that tension between the past and the present--the desire to move forward and yet to feel apprehensive about doing so. We are country that extols progress, always have, and yet we long for that cabin at Walden. The train has stopped. This is Willoughby, sir. It's the 4th of July...
In fact, you could fix it back up and lease as office space for say an art shop or sandwich shop or whatever.
The whole scene symbolizes what America is all about--that tension between the past and the present--the desire to move forward and yet to feel apprehensive about doing so. We are country that extols progress, always have, and yet we long for that cabin at Walden. The train has stopped. This is Willoughby, sir. It's the 4th of July...
307
This reminds me of a favorite children's book which my Mom read to me and which I have now passed on to my children for theirs: The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton, c 1942. Once read, you will never forget it.
Dear Sir,
Thank you so much for your evocative comments regarding this charming bungalow and what it may mean to us Americans; your last few sentences took my mind to a much higher level!
Thank you so much for your evocative comments regarding this charming bungalow and what it may mean to us Americans; your last few sentences took my mind to a much higher level!
1
all about greed. the fact that this garners so much attention shows how little resistance there is to the steamroller that is capitalism.
Stories like this restore my faith in humanity just a bit.
43
"Then she turned to the cement walls."
Make that concrete walls. Cement is an ingredient, along with water and stone, in concrete.
Make that concrete walls. Cement is an ingredient, along with water and stone, in concrete.
16
Oh very well, "then she turned to the concrete, reinforced by steel I-beam, fire-retardant-mesh-containing, aluminum-paint-coated, rectilinear walls". Hope that version is sufficiently literal but I guess I could go on in that manner.
17
When seeing this picture and reading this article my thoughts were varied. Was she just too stubborn for her own good or was she just spiteful about the modernization or could she just have been a woman with the steel backbone to say no to a large sum of money she might have used in a time when money is, for most people, more important than integrity, courage, and even bravery in the face of power.
She did good.
She did good.
88
The uniqueness of the little house is such an extreme contrast to the nondescript buildings that surround it. These buildings have absolutely no architectural significance. What will these poorly designed buildings look like generations later? The businesses that occupy the commercial spaces are corporate behemoths that can afford higher rents to expensive for most smaller businesses and entrepreneurs.
What ever happen to sustainability? It would be a great triumph to incorporate the old with the new.
The “Life and Death of Great American Cities” by Jane Jacob’s examines the pro’s and con’s that occur in cities.
The book should be mandatory reading for every city planner.
Ms. Macefield and Ms.Engin are heroes.
What ever happen to sustainability? It would be a great triumph to incorporate the old with the new.
The “Life and Death of Great American Cities” by Jane Jacob’s examines the pro’s and con’s that occur in cities.
The book should be mandatory reading for every city planner.
Ms. Macefield and Ms.Engin are heroes.
211
"The “Life and Death of Great American Cities” by Jane Jacob’s examines the pro’s and con’s that occur in cities.
The book should be mandatory reading for every city planner."
I did read it in planning class. After a few years I realized that planners are worthless. Why? The have to deal with the decision makers, usually elected and sometimes appointed, that have never read anything remotely like it.
They make the decisions and the planners just go along.
Me. I quit and did something else as real planning is futile.
The book should be mandatory reading for every city planner."
I did read it in planning class. After a few years I realized that planners are worthless. Why? The have to deal with the decision makers, usually elected and sometimes appointed, that have never read anything remotely like it.
They make the decisions and the planners just go along.
Me. I quit and did something else as real planning is futile.
4
City planners should be abolished. They are insular, too young to understand what generational lifestyles mean, and they are not people oriented.
2
Believe me, there is nothing unique about a Craftsman in Seattle - they're all over the place. And those Craftmans themselves replaced older styles of housing (like the Queen Anne houses that gave the neighborhood of Queen Anne its name). I agree that the new buildings in this particular shot are not particularly well designed (although they are in a very industrial area, so they actually fit in fairly well. And there are several local businesses occupying space in this development, to counter your comment on corporate behemoths). Mostly I take issue with people's obsession with the existing, with the old, with the "historical," all the while forgetting that those things were at one point the new thing that people loved to hate. Change is not necessarily bad!
Actually, the house reminds me of Virginia Burton's wonderful picture book THE LITTLE HOUSE. Beautifully illustrated, it tells the story of a little cottage built on a country hillside. Then, as with Seattle, development encroaches. Page after page shows the development and over-development of the area around it, and the dilapidatization [is that a word??] of the little house. Finally, when all seems lost, someone buys the Little House and trucks it to a little hill out of the city, where it sits, refurbished and, we assume, happy.
Has anyone thought of moving Mrs. Macefield's house?
NB. Virgini Burton also wrote MIKE MULLIGAN AND HIS STEAM SHOVEL and other wonderful, imaginative books. They entranced me when I was young.
Has anyone thought of moving Mrs. Macefield's house?
NB. Virgini Burton also wrote MIKE MULLIGAN AND HIS STEAM SHOVEL and other wonderful, imaginative books. They entranced me when I was young.
68
Thanks, I was on the verge of writing that also! I can't believe more posters don't remember the book -- it made a huge impression on me as a child. I was so relieved and happy that the little house in the book was saved and moved to the countryside, but I admit I also have a fantasy of living in a tiny house surrounded by the Big City as well.
Sadly, modern real estate prices have doomed so many "little houses" and neighborhoods around the country.
Sadly, modern real estate prices have doomed so many "little houses" and neighborhoods around the country.
4
Aaah, Mike Mulligan, I remember him well. The steam shovel did its job so well that it dug a hole it couldn't get out of. In the end, it became the boiler that heated the new building.
Great to remember that heart is more important than money.
Great to remember that heart is more important than money.
9
Born in 1942, the year that Burton wrote the book. It became one of my favorite books, one of the few from those early years that I remember well.
Although Burton said it was not a morality tale about progress, I thought it was even as a child. Still do.
Although Burton said it was not a morality tale about progress, I thought it was even as a child. Still do.
"“It seems to be a trend in Seattle to tear down perfectly good homes and build as big as you can,” she said."
Not just Seattle. Charlotte has torn down every building in Uptown so we can have more ugly towers with no street side shopping. Until recently with all the apartments being built you could go Uptown after 6 PM and hear rubber soled shoes echoing in the canyons. Now you can't hear anything over the blare of 235 bars/restaurants.
Not just Seattle. Charlotte has torn down every building in Uptown so we can have more ugly towers with no street side shopping. Until recently with all the apartments being built you could go Uptown after 6 PM and hear rubber soled shoes echoing in the canyons. Now you can't hear anything over the blare of 235 bars/restaurants.
31
Raleigh is right behind you! And the architecture of the new buildings is uniformly unattractive.
3
This house is a truly interesting phenomenon, but Ms. Engin's comments are very strange - they seem to confuse urban development and renewal through heavily misplaced nostalgia.
Varied densities and uses fit urban environments differently, and their patterns change over time through active public and/or private intention.
There is no shortage of single family homes in America or the world, and they in fact represent one of the least efficient uses of resources, a true challenge we will be facing in the coming generations. One home standing steadfast in a transitioning neighborhood does not symbolize a fight against 'modernity' or a current digital era (her reference to the iPad).
High density development has existed for millenia, even in this hemisphere - Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City) was a city of 300,000 by 1519.
Urban density and mixed use are not anti-traditional. They are not anti-American values. They occur through public and private processes that transition spaces to improve value.
Varied densities and uses fit urban environments differently, and their patterns change over time through active public and/or private intention.
There is no shortage of single family homes in America or the world, and they in fact represent one of the least efficient uses of resources, a true challenge we will be facing in the coming generations. One home standing steadfast in a transitioning neighborhood does not symbolize a fight against 'modernity' or a current digital era (her reference to the iPad).
High density development has existed for millenia, even in this hemisphere - Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City) was a city of 300,000 by 1519.
Urban density and mixed use are not anti-traditional. They are not anti-American values. They occur through public and private processes that transition spaces to improve value.
21
LOL, says a New Yorker. Believe me, efficient or not, single family homes are good for HUMANS. High rises and ridiculous inflated real estate prices are good for investment banks and stock market bubbles.
12
What mixed-use do you see in that block besides the little hold-out house? The area has been zoned for commercial-only use -- the very opposite of mixed-use, and a sign of the hideous suburban mentality prevalent all over the US -- a shortsighted culture that does not embrace urban values. We need to go back to mixed-use and the wisdom of Jane Jacobs -- but as your comment demonstrates, so many of us have forgotten what mixed-use even is or would look like.
2
Mr Kimmerle accepts the embrace the fate others have planned for you argument.
3
Good for Edith Macefield. If I had the money and wanted to live in Seattle, I'd buy and preserve her house in a heartbeat.
59
I have looked further on the web about the house. A subsequent owner gutted the interior. Nothing remains of Ms Macefield's bungalow except the roof and some of the foundation. You can see in the Wikipedia photo that originally it had wonderful, detailed windows. Those were removed by the subsequent owner and replaced with trash windows. The original windows almost undoubtedly show the kind of detail the interior originally had and which is now gone. What a loss.
17
Buy that place? live there? for how long? another 50 years, God willing, and then ... nobody will care. the house is ugly, plain, sterile, nothing to recommend it other than a stubborn woman who said she would live out her days there. She did.
That's all she wrote.
That's all she wrote.
1
A little park would be wonderful, no building, just some benches and greenery!
112
The building is what made the site famous! Preserve the building as a period museum piece.
10
Interesting that you said that. I believe there is a regulation in Philadelphia that when developers put up a large building in the Center City District they have to have to include some public space. That public space is usually a park setting, usually with some piece of art (statue, mobile, etc.) and usually a few benches. The public area has to be truly available to the general public.
8
Use some of the money to put a memorial in a Seattle park and use the rest to help the truly needy.
2
Reminds me of what happened to my life in this world.
73
So touching and inspirational. I recall a similar posture by a staunch resident near Bloomingdales in NYC in the late 60's early 70's whose little house still sits between the giants. I admired her then and I admire all who hold their ground
49
I think the house would make a great Starbucks, the "Edith Macefield Memorial Starbucks House"!! Hey, doesn't Starbucks have something to do with Seattle?
10
It would make a great independent coffee house. Some of the rooms could be used for small groups to meet. Third street in Geneva has small boutique shops in once were homes. And there is a coffee house in one of them. What once were two bedrooms are used as extra space and can be reserved for small groups to meet. There are several knitting groups and book clubs that meet there.
The tall, gray concrete buildings look drab.
The tall, gray concrete buildings look drab.
8
Wow! Virginia Lee Burton's book "The Little House" has come to life! The book proposes an ending: Move the house to an idyllic spot, rehab it and let it live in peace.
40
Somewhat ironic that we pause to celebrate this so-called symbol of individual resistance against corporate hubris, and then continue on our journey to grab a latte at Starbucks...
14
Whistle! Whistle!
Speak for yourself, Lumpy. I make my coffee at home.
Speak for yourself, Lumpy. I make my coffee at home.
8
Indeed, Lumpy, speak for yourself; why do you loftily assume that everyone else is running with the herd?
3
I doubt the economics will support my plan, but I'd love to see the house renovated and embellished and turned into a tourist spot.
Hey a girl can dream, no?
Hey a girl can dream, no?
30
What a shame that the city doesn't see the potential of this little house nor the the vision I, and probably others, have for it - to make it new again and allow it to become an endearing and charming structure in the sea of concrete that surrounds it.
It might even serve as a wonderful business location.
Why must "progress" almost always start by razing properties that have inherent value?
When you think of it, does that monolithic structure around it REALLY need that extra 600 square feet of space to make more of a profit?
It might even serve as a wonderful business location.
Why must "progress" almost always start by razing properties that have inherent value?
When you think of it, does that monolithic structure around it REALLY need that extra 600 square feet of space to make more of a profit?
136
It may resemble the house in "Up," but the story is reminiscent of Virginia Lee Burton's children's book, "The Little House."
19
That was the first thing I thought of, and I wish someone will do that to this house...
1