Spite house

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The Richardson Spite House in 1895.

A spite house is a building generally found in an urban environment that is constructed or modified because someone that the builder feels has wronged him does not want it there. Typically built to annoy and aggravate someone, in most cases a neighbor, these buildings serve primarily as obstructions, blocking out light or access to neighboring buildings, or as flamboyant symbols of defiance.^[1][2] Because actually inhabiting such structures is usually a secondary goal at most, they often have strange and impractical layouts. Once the reason it was constructed or modified is publicized, area locals begin referring to the house or commercial building as a spite house.

Probably the most famous spite house was the Richardson Spite House in New York City at Lexington Avenue and 82nd street. Built in 1882^[3] and demolished in 1915, it was four stories tall, 104 feet (31.7 m) long, and only five feet (1.5 m) wide. Joseph Richardson, the owner of the plot of the same dimensions, built it after the owner of the adjacent plot, Hyman Sarner, unsuccessfully tried to purchase the land. Sarner considered the plot useless by itself and offered only $1000; Richardson demanded $5000. After the deal fell through, Richardson had an apartment building constructed on his land. It was a functional (if impractical) apartment building, with eight suites each consisting of three rooms and a bath.^[4]

Unlike spite fences, spite houses are rare.^[1] This is in part a result of malicious erection statutes directed at adjoining landowners. Connecticut, for example, has provided legal and equitable relief for the malicious erection of "any building or structure" since 1867.^[5] Modern building codes largely prevent disputes being addressed by building obstructions to others' use and enjoyment of their land.^[1]

[edit] Examples

The Old Spite House of Marblehead, Massachusetts in 1912

• In 1716, Thomas Wood, a sail maker, built a home in Marblehead, Massachusetts that subsequently received the sobriquet of The Old Spite House. One theory has it that it was inhabited by two brothers who occupied different sections, wouldn't speak to each other, and refused in spite to sell to the other.^[6] In another explanation for the presently occupied, ten-foot (3 m) wide home that is just tall enough to block the view of two other houses on Orne Street, the builder was upset about his tiny share of his father's estate and his revenge was a house to spite his older brothers' views.^[7] The Old Spite House still is standing and occupied.^[7]

McCobb Spite House at Deadman's Point in July 1960.

• In 1806, Thomas McCobb, heir to his father's Phippsburg, Maine land and shipbuilding business, returned home from sea to discover that his stepbrother Mark had inherited the family "Mansion in the Wilderness".^[8] Upset about his loss, McCobb built a home directly across from the McCobb mansion to spite his stepbrother.^[8] The National Park Service's Historic American Buildings Survey photographed and documented the 1925 move of the McCobb Spite House by barge from Phippsburg to Deadman's Point in Rockport, Maine.^[9][10][11]

Tyler Spite House in Frederick, Maryland, located at the southern terminus of Record Street

• In 1814, Dr. John Tyler, an eminent ophthalmologist and the first American-born physician to perform a cataract operation owned a parcel of land near the courthouse square in Frederick, Maryland.^[12] The city made plans to extend Record Street south through Tyler's land to meet West Patrick Street.^[12] In fighting the city, Tyler discovered a local law that prevented the building of a road if work was in progress on a substantial building in the path of a proposed road.^[12] To spite the city, Tyler immediately had workmen pour a building foundation, which was discovered by the road crews the next morning.^[12] The Tyler Spite House now operates as a bed and breakfast business.^[12]

• In 1830, John Hollensbury's home in Alexandria, Virginia was one of two homes directly bordering an alleyway that received an annoying amount of horse-drawn wagon traffic and loiterers.^[13] To prevent people from using the alleyway, Hollensbury constructed a 7-foot (2.1 m) wide, 25-foot (7.6 m) deep, 325-square-foot (30.2 m²), two-story home using the existing brick walls of the adjacent homes for the sides of the new home.^[13] The brick walls of the Hollensbury Spite House living room have gouges from wagon-wheel hubs and the house still is standing and occupied.^[13]

The Skinny House in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts is an extremely narrow four-story spite house reported by The Boston Globe as having the "uncontested distinction of being the narrowest house in Boston".

• In 1874, two brothers in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts got into a dispute.^[14][15] Each had previously inherited land from their deceased father.^[14] While the second brother was away serving in the military, the first brother built a large home, leaving the soldier only a shred of property that the first brother felt certain was too tiny to build on.^[14] When the soldier returned, he found his inheritance depleted and built a wooden house at 44 Hull St. to spite his brother by blocking the sunlight and ruining his view.^[14] The outside of the house spans 10.4 feet (3.2 m) and tapers to 9.25 feet (2.82 m) in the rear.^[14] The Skinny House still is standing and occupied.^[14][15]

• In 1880, Adam Schilling owned a tract of 80 acres (32 ha) adjoining the town of Hiawatha, Kansas.^[16] Schilling sold three-fourths of an acre of this land, on which a house eventually was built and became owned by James Falloon.^[16] Together, the eighty acres were well-suited to be added to the town of Hiawatha, but Falloon refused to sell Schilling his three-fourths of an acre at the low price offered by Schilling.^[16] To spite his neighbor, Schilling then built a cheap tenement house on his own property 13 feet (4.0 m) from Falloon's with the "oppressive and unlawful idea of rendering Falloon's home obnoxious and unendurable to Falloon and family" by renting to people Falloon might find objectionable.^[16]

• In 1882, after the owner of the adjacent plot, Hyman Sarner, unsuccessfully tried to purchase Joseph Richardson's land, Richardson built the famed Richardson Spite House in New York, New York that was demolished in 1915.^[3]

• Prior to 1898, a home was erected in Salem, Massachusetts to "cut off the view of a neighbor".^[17] After the owner died, his heirs agreed in 1898 to have the Salem Spite House torn down to avoid a "vexatious lawsuit with the obnoxious neighbor".^[17]

• In the 19th century, a Collinsville, Connecticut butcher feuded with his neighbor.^[18] To spite his neighbor, the butcher built between their adjoining houses a narrow, two-story structure with windows covered by Venetian blinds.^[18] The wooden building located between 23 and 25 River St. was the width of a standard stairway and allowed the butcher to block the sun to the neighbor's home and block the neighbor's view of the butcher's property at will.^[18][19] The butcher's son got along with the family next door and eventually tore down the Collinsville Spite House.^[18] Also in the 19th century, a Freeport, New York developer who opposed all of Freeport being laid out in a grid, put up a Victorian house virtually overnight on a triangular plot at the corner of Lena Avenue and Wilson Place to spite the grid designers.^[20][21] The Freeport Spite House still is standing and occupied.^[20]

• At the turn of the 19th century, the city of Alameda, California took a large chunk of Charles Froling's land away to build a street. Froling had planned to build his dream house on the plot of land he received through inheritance.^[22] To spite the city and an unsympathetic neighbor, Froling built a house 10 feet (3.0 m) wide, 54 feet (16 m) long and 20 feet (6.1 m) high on the tiny strip of land left to him.^[22] The Alameda Spite House still is standing and occupied.^[22]

• In 1904, the family of a deceased Joseph Edleston owned a plot of land next to the churchyard of St. Mary's in Gainford, England.^[23]. The children asked to erect a monument in the churchyard in memory of Joseph's 41-year tenure at the church.^[23] The church refused permission, asserting that the churchyard was full but that the family could donate their land to the church and then build a monument on part of it.^[23] Feeling slighted, the family immediately set about building themselves a house on their land with a 40-foot (12 m) column erected next to the churchyard so it towered over the trees and pointed a huge V-sign in stone towards the church authorities.^[23] The Edleston Spite House still is standing and occupied and has MCMIV (1904) over the front door.^[23]

• In 1908, Francis O'Reilly owned an investment parcel of land in West Cambridge, Massachusetts and approached his abutting land neighbor to sell the land for a gain.^[24] After the neighbor refused to buy the land, O'Reilly built a 308-square-foot (28.6 m²) building, measuring 37 feet (11 m) long and only 8 feet (2.4 m) wide to spite the neighbor.^[24] The O'Reilly Spite House still is standing and is occupied by The Real Estate Cafe.^[24]

• Prior to 1914, the Austro-Hungarians who ruled Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina wanted land in the Sarajevo Old Town district to build a city hall and library.^[25] The land had a home on it and, despite offering the owner money, he refused and continued to refuse even when told that he had to move.^[25] When the officials threatened him, he moved the house and rebuilt it, piece by piece, on the other side of the Miljacka river, as a way of spiting the officials.^[25] The Sarajevo Spite House operates today as a restaurant is called "Inat Kuca" which means "Spite House".^[25]

Alley view: thin end of the Montlake Spite House (left) and the house it blocks from 24th.

• In 1925, a Montlake, Seattle, Washington neighbor made an insultingly low offer for a tiny slice of adjoining land.^[26] Out of spite for the low offer, the builder built an 860-square-foot (80 m²) house that blocked the neighbors' open space.^[26] The house is 55 inches (1.4 m) wide at the south end and 15 feet (4.6 m) wide at the north end.^[26] The Montlake Spite House still is standing and occupied.^[26]

• In the 1950s, two Virginia City, Nevada neighbors got into a dispute.^[27] When one of the men built a new house, the other bought the lot next to it and built a house less than 12 inches (30 cm) from his neighbor's house in spite to deprive the neighbor of both view and breeze.^[27] The Virginia City Spite House still is standing and occupied.^[27]

• In 1985, a Sunrise, Florida homeowner painted his home hot pink and passionate purple to spite the city, which had given him several tickets for parking his glass company vans overnight in front of his home in violation of a city code related to residential night parking of commercial vehicles.^[28] Characterized as a spite house painted in retaliation against the city,^[28] the pink and purple paint job was identified as the owner permitting graffiti or other inscribed materials to remain and likely violate the Sunrise city code section prohibiting eyesores that also were public nuisances.^[29]

[edit] Other uses

The term "spite house" also relates to an old Southern United States custom of consigning an ostracized family member to a very small, second house on the family land "where he was expected to live in solitude as punishment for having embarrassed his family."^[30]

[edit] See also

• Eyesore
• Cutting off the nose to spite the face
• Sam Kee Building
• Spite fence
• Spite pole - One or more vertical poles arbitrarily erected by a landowner to try to prevent aircraft from flying over their land in a dispute over air rights.
• The Smallest House in Great Britain

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Prospect Avenue Spite House of 1880 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, shown here, is item no. 21 on this Milwaukee Historical Building map, and discussed here.
• 75 1/2 Bedford (9 1/2 ft. wide located at 75 Bedford St, New York, NY 10014.)^[1]