Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Small home dwarfed by development sold

Buyer says he’ll lift cottage; elderly owner died last year

This  2008 file photo shows a new building in Ballard, Wash., surrounding Edith Macefield’s cottage. AP Photo/The Seattle Times, Alan Berner (File AP Photo/The Seattle Times, Alan Berner / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press

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.