SEATTLE — A Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to move the Ballard home that belonged to Edith Macefield has failed to reach its $205,000 goal.
OPAL Community Land Trust was hoping to raise the funds to pluck the home from Ballard, load it onto a barge and deliver it to an Orcas Island family in need. They also told KIRO 7 they’re planning a new fundraiser expiring at the end of the month to try again to raise $175,000.
KIRO 7 also discovered that the developer of the Ballard Blocks, the development that was built around her, has purchased the land Macefield’s home sits on for $450,000. They say they plan to “fill in” the Ballard Blocks once the home is removed, and there are plans to honor Macefield’s legacy at the site in some fashion.
Macefield famously turned down $1 million from the developer to move out of her home so that construction may continue.
The home still potentially faces the wrecking ball, if the OPAL Community Land Trust fundraising does not work out, and if two people waiting in the wings can’t move the home themselves.
The house has been called the “Up” house after the Pixar animated film that tells the story of an aging man fighting for his home in a community being overtaken by development. The screenplay began years before Macefield’s fight to keep her house, though a promotion for the movie at Macefield’s house a year after her 2008 death made many believe the Seattle home inspired the movie.
Supporters of Macefield’s story have often put balloons along the fence since the 2009 release of “Up.” The two-bedroom, one-bathroom house was built in 1900 at 1438 NW 46th St. – back when Ballard was a separate city.
Some even got tattoos of the house, and the annual Macefield Music Festival began in 2013.
"I went through World War II: the noise doesn't bother me," Macefield told the P-I during the 2007 construction around her house. "They'll get it done someday."
Macefield, whose only child died from meningitis at age 13, left the house to Barry Martin, the superintendent of the construction, who helped her with errands and helped her in the last years of her life. In June 2009, a year after Macefield’s death from pancreatic cancer at age 86, he sold the house for $310,000.
In March, the house went up for auction but no buyer would assume the $300,000 in liens. Those liens were dropped from a new listing, and a broker for the anonymous seller said the home would go to the person who made the best offer. But the seller also required a buyer to find a way to honor Macefield at the site.
The woman who bought the home in April had hoped to open a coffee and pie shop to be named Edith Pie, according to the P-I. But city rules require that the home comply with the current city of Seattle building codes, a task that Paul Thomas, the broker behind the home sale, said was “virtually impossible.”
KIRO
