Edith Macefield (August 21, 1921 – June 15, 2008) was a real estate holdout who received worldwide attention in 2006 when she turned down an offer of $1 million to sell her house to make way for a commercial development in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, Washington (originally reported as a package worth $750,000).[1] Instead, the five-story project was built surrounding her 108-year-old farmhouse, where she died at age 86 in 2008.[2] In the process, she became something of a folk hero.[3]
After she died, Macefield willed her house to the new building's construction superintendent, Barry Martin, in gratitude for his friendship and caretaker role.[4][5] Martin told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Two or three times she was basically going to sell and move, and then I know the last time she ended up falling and breaking some ribs, and that kind of took the gas out of her, and then it was just too much work."[6]
Early life
Macefield was born in Oregon in 1921 and learned French, German, and other languages. She joined the military and was sent to England, where she was later taken out of the service after officials discovered she was not 18 years old.[7] Macefield stayed in England where she took care of war orphans, and later moved back home, where she took care of her mother and worked at Washington Dental Service.[citation needed]
She was married four times, all in Europe.[N 1] She outlived her last three husbands and her only child (a son who died at 13 from spinal meningitis) by decades.[8]
Macefield turned down a reported $1 million offer to sell her home in 2006 to make way for a commercial development in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.[9][10][1] In the process, she became something of a folk hero.[3] Instead, the five-story project was built surrounding her 108-year-old farmhouse, where she died at age 86 from pancreatic cancer.[11][2] The house is located at 1438 NW 46th St.
Legacy
As she intended, she died at her family home. She was buried in Evergreen Washelli Cemetery, Seattle, beside her mother, who had died in 1976 on the same couch as she did.[8] On May 26, 2009, Disney publicists attached balloons to the roof of Macefield's house, as a promotional tie-in to their film, Up, in which an aging widower's home is similarly surrounded by looming development.[12] However, scriptwriting and production on Up began in 2004, two years before Macefield's refusal to sell to the property developers.[13]
In July 2009, Barry Martin sold the house to real estate investor Greg Pinneo for $310,000.[14] Pinneo intended to use the house as an office to run his real estate coaching firm Reach Returns.[15] However, on March 13, 2015, the house went through foreclosure auction and was subsequently put back on the market.[14] Pinneo had failed to pay back taxes on the house.[16]
The inaugural Macefield Music Festival was held October 5, 2013, in Ballard. The event included multiple musical genres, in several venues. The promoters said it "will be an affordable way to explore the current landscape of Seattle music while celebrating the steadfast attitude of the dearly departed Ms. Macefield."[17]
A 99% Invisible podcast titled "Holdout" (#130) discussed the story of Macefield.[18]
BBC Radio 4 broadcast a play, The Macefield Plot written by Daniel Thurman, on May 14, 2019, (repeated in June 2021). Directed by David Hunter, it starred Siân Phillips as Macefield and Stanley Townsend as Barry Martin.[19]
^Her marriages were to Richard Tauber (Austrian), James Philip Denton (English), Leonardo Simon Genn (Welsh), and Gretoui [sic?] Anatoli Domilini (Italian, died 1984).[8]
^"Edith Macefield's Seattle house goes 'Up' for auction". CBC News. April 20, 2015. Retrieved May 26, 2015. Martin was the construction foreman back in 2006 for the building project, but became close friends with Edith. His friendship soon transitioned into a caretaker role for the elderly woman.
^Guzmán, Mónica (May 26, 2009). "Wind sabotages 'UP' balloon display over Macefield home". The Big Blog. SeattlePI.com. When publicists for Disney's "UP" announced they were going to tie balloons to late local hero Edith Macefield's house in Ballard as a promotional stunt, we thought hundreds, maybe even thousands of the colorful helium globs would reach into the sky, dwarfing the small bungalow below and putting the surrounding complex to shame ... Turns out the display had many more balloons when it was first set up at 9 a.m. Then the wind blew, pushing the balloons into the surrounding walls, where they began to pop.
^"Up Producer/Director". Moviehole. February 10, 2009. Retrieved January 1, 2020. How many people worked on the script, and for how long? .... Bob Peterson started in 2004.
