Woman who refused to sell tiny Ballard home dies

A Seattle woman who garnered attention for refusing to sell her tiny cottage to developers in Ballard has died.

Edith Macefield died inside her Ballard cottage on Sunday. She was 86.

In her final years, Ms. Macefield's home on Northwest 46th Street, just east of the Ballard Bridge, was dwarfed by cranes. Her daily life was drowned out by the sound of construction equipment building a new fitness club, parking garage and grocery store.

When Ms. Macefield moved into her cottage 56 years ago, it was part of a row of picket-fence-lined cottages in the working-class Scandinavian neighborhood. The small 108-year-old home is now the only house left standing on the block.

Instead of families and cottages, the neighborhood became home to a chemical plant and abandoned lots strewn with garbage on three sides. Government assessors pegged Ms. Macefield's house value at just $8,000 — essentially a worthless tear-down. The sliver of land it sits on — less than four-hundredths of an acre — is assessed at $101,000.

When developers showed up offering Ms. Macefield a buyout package worth an estimated three-quarters of a million dollars, she refused to take it.

When interviewed in 2006, Ms. Macefield said, "I don't care about money ... I'm perfectly happy here. And I don't want to move."

Information previously reported in The Seattle Times is contained in this report.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com