New building swallowing woman’s home

While the recent stories of the Denny’s, Sunset Bowl and Ballard’s overall transformation having been grabbing headlines (even in the LA Times this weekend), let’s not forget about Edith Macefield. Remember, she’s the 86-year-old Ballard woman who made national news when she turned down $1 million to sell her home to developers. So we decided to stop by NW 46 St. and see how the construction project is going.

Yep, they’re building the five-story building around her house, as they said they would. And workers still have a few more stories to go.

Here’s the side view. You can’t even see Macefield’s house. Her blue car is parked in between the Honey Buckets and orange cones. And right across the street is a land use sign that says a four-story office building will be under construction soon (more info on that project here). No matter where you come down in this debate, you have to admit this is a little sad.

Heidi adds in comments: “I will always think of the true Ballard spirit when I see this lady’s house. I hope the future business partners will think twice before negotiating with these developers… heartless.”

Martha adds in comments: “Why doesn’t she do like the children’s book and move the entire house? Her 1 million dollar offer would pay for the move and a really nice piece of land!”