Small home dwarfed by development sold
Buyer says he’ll lift cottage; elderly owner died last year
SEATTLE – The house of an elderly woman who refused to move and sell her modest home for $1 million to developers has been purchased by a motivational speaker a year after her death.
Edith Macefield became well-known in Seattle for her refusal to move from her cottage, even as a multistory commercial complex was being constructed around it.
The tiny home eventually was dwarfed by tall, blank cement walls that surrounded it.
Macefield died in 2008, and willed her home to Barry Martin, a construction supervisor whom she befriended.
According to King County records, Martin sold the home to Greg Pinneo, co-founder of Reach Returns, a real estate coaching firm.
Pinneo says he wants to raise the house using a steel supporting structure and build open spaces underneath it.