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All the United States Washington Seattle Edith Macefield's House
AO Edited

Edith Macefield's House

The tale of a strong-willed woman who stood her ground when the commercial world came rumbling in.

Seattle, Washington

Added By
Mordy
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Edith Macefield house in 2015   Kevin Schafer / Getty Images
Edith Macefield house in 2015   Kevin Schafer / Getty Images
Edith Macefield’s House in 2015   Sean Marshall / CC BY 2.0
Hidden but not gone   Aty Trocious / Atlas Obscura User
  Aty Trocious / Atlas Obscura User
Macefield House in 2018, decorated by fans after being spared demolition   matthucke / Atlas Obscura User
  cait7911 / Atlas Obscura User
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  cait7911 / Atlas Obscura User
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About

The late Edith Macefield became somewhat of a folk hero when she refused a $1 million dollar offer to sell her small, quaint home in Ballard, Seattle.

Reminiscent of China's "nail houses" (homes belonging to people who refuse to sell or vacate their property to make room for development), Macefield's 100-year-old farmhouse defied commercial builders as businesses and storefronts sprang up around it. At the time, the stubborn Washingtonian explained herself succinctly, “I don’t want to move. I don’t need the money; money doesn’t mean anything.” 

The bulldozers, steamrollers, and cranes that began to dominate the landscape as urban development continued apace only served to accentuate the charm of her aged home. Her old blue car and now-obsolete white fence remained all throughout the work, evidence of their owner's determination.

Sadly, Macefield passed away in 2008 leaving her home to Barry Martin, the senior superintendent of construction, with whom she had developed a warm relationship. Martin sold the house the following year to a real estate agency, which agreed not to raze the building. Instead, they intend to lift the house to accommodate commercial enterprises while also renting the home to long-term visitors in a compromise that would hopefully satisfy Ms. Macefield.

As locals tell it, the story of this house inspired the Disney movie Up, in which an old man in a similar predicament uses thousands of balloons to lift his house away from the construction site. This is, however, a myth. The movie screenplay was already mostly written by 2004, before this story happened in real life.  In 2009, when the movie was released, Disney attached balloons to the Macefield house to attract publicity. Though the house is now in a sad, stripped state, fans continue to add balloons to the fence.

In 2018, the developer behind Ballard Blocks told Curbed that they were planning to integrate the house into the design as an event space or a home for pop-up restaurants.

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Community Contributors

Added By

Mordy

Edited By

Martin, matthucke, Blindcolour, noaha...

  • Martin
  • matthucke
  • Blindcolour
  • noaha
  • AlfrescoDog
  • cait7911
  • Aty Trocious
  • Michelle Cassidy

Published

August 6, 2012

Updated

April 7, 2023

Edit this listing

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Sources
  • https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/holdout/
  • https://seattle.curbed.com/2018/4/19/17257448/edith-macefield-up-house-preservation
  • https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/searching-for-edith-macefield/
  • http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Edith-Macefield-1921-2008-Ballard-woman-held-1276795.php
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Macefield
Edith Macefield's House
1438 Northwest 46th Street
Seattle, Washington, 98107
United States
47.662385, -122.375362
Get Directions

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Photo of Seattle

Seattle

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Stories 18

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Stories 18

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