A spite house is a building constructed or substantially modified to irritate neighbors or any party with land stakes. Because long-term occupation is not the primary purpose of these houses, they frequently sport strange and impractical structures.
Spite houses may deliberately obstruct light or block access to neighboring buildings, or might be flagrant symbols of defiance. [1] [2] Although, in the US, homeowners generally have no right to views, light, or air, neighbors can sue for a negative easement. In instances regarding a spite build, courts are far more likely to side with the neighboring parties which may have been affected by that build. [3] For example, the Coty v. Ramsey Associates, Inc. case of 1988 ruled that the defendant's spite farm constituted a nuisance, granting the neighboring landowner a negative easement. [3]
Spite houses, as well as spite farms, are considerably rarer than spite fences. [1] This is partially attributable to the fact that modern building codes often prevent the construction of houses likely to impinge on neighbors' views or privacy, but mostly because fence construction is far cheaper, quicker, and easier than home construction. [4] There are also similar structures known as spite walls or blinder walls.
Construction of spite houses or spite fences is considered illegal in those countries which follow the civil law. It is considered as abuse of rights, and in some countries, like Finland, it is explicitly prohibited by law. [5]
In 1716, Thomas Wood, a sailmaker, built a house in Marblehead, Massachusetts, that subsequently became known as the Old Spite House. One possibility is that it was inhabited by two brothers who occupied different sections, would not speak to each other, and refused to sell to the other. [6] Another explanation is that the ten-foot-wide (3 m) house, just tall enough to block the view of two other houses on Orne Street, was built because its owner was upset about his tiny share of his father's estate and therefore decided to spoil his older brothers' views. [7] The Old Spite House is still standing and occupied. [7]
In 1806, Thomas McCobb, heir to his father's land and shipbuilding business, returned home to Phippsburg, Maine, from sea to discover that his stepbrother Mark had inherited the family "Mansion in the Wilderness". [8] Upset about his loss, McCobb built a house 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]
In 1814, John Tyler, an ophthalmologist and one of the first American-born physicians 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] [13]
In 1830, John Hollensbury's home in Alexandria, Virginia, was one of two houses that directly bordered an alley that attracted an annoying amount of horse-drawn wagon traffic and loiterers. [14] To prevent people from using the alleyway, Hollensbury constructed a 7-foot-wide (2.1 m), 25-foot-deep (7.6 m), 325-square-foot (30.2 m2), two-story home using the existing brick walls of the adjacent homes for the sides of the new house. [14] The brick walls of the Hollensbury Spite House living room have gouges from wagon-wheel hubs, and the house is still standing and occupied. [14]
The Skinny House in Boston is considered a spite house. One story of its creation tells that in 1874, two brothers in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts, got into a dispute. [15] [16] Each had previously inherited land from their deceased father. [15] 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. [15] 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. [15] The outside of the house spans 10.4 feet (3.2 m) and tapers to 9.25 feet (2.82 m) in the rear. [15]
In 1880, Adam Schilling owned a tract of 80 acres (32 ha) adjoining the town of Hiawatha, Kansas. [17] Schilling sold three-quarters of an acre of this land, on which a house eventually was built and became owned by James Falloon. [17] Together, the 80 acres (320,000 m2) were well-suited to add to the town of Hiawatha, but Falloon refused to sell his three-quarters of an acre at the low price Schilling offered. [17] 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 "idea of rendering Falloon's home obnoxious and unendurable to Falloon and family" by renting to people Falloon might find objectionable. [17]
The Richardson Spite House in New York City at Lexington Avenue and 82nd Street was built in 1882 [18] and demolished in 1915. It was four stories tall, 104 feet (31.7 m) wide, and only five feet (1.5 m) deep. Joseph Richardson, the owner of the plot, built it after the owner of an 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 (albeit impractical) apartment building with eight suites, each consisting of three rooms and a bath. [19]
In the early 1890s, in the Astor family, William Waldorf Astor's mansion was next door to that of his aunt, Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, on the block later occupied by the Empire State Building. He and his aunt did not get along well, and William replaced his mansion with a hotel, the original Waldorf Hotel in 1893. The building not only towered over his aunt's home, but it also had no windows at all on the side facing the aunt's mansion. [20]
At some point before 1898, a home was erected in Salem, Massachusetts, to "cut off the view of a neighbor". [21] 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". [21]
In the 19th century, a butcher in Collinsville, Connecticut, feuded with his neighbor. [22] To spite his neighbor, the butcher built between their adjoining houses a narrow, two-story structure with windows covered by Venetian blinds. [22] 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. [22] [23] The butcher's son got along with the family next door and eventually tore down the Collinsville Spite House. [22]
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. [24] [25] The Freeport Spite House is still standing and occupied. [24]
At the turn of the 20th century, the city of Alameda, California, took a large portion of Charles Froling's land to build a street. Froling had planned to build his dream house on the plot of land he received through inheritance. [26] To spite the city and an unsympathetic neighbor, Froling built a house 10 feet (3.0 m) deep, 54 feet (16 m) long and 20 feet (6.1 m) high on the tiny strip of land left to him. [26] He cantilevered the front-facing second story both to maximize floor space and preclude encroachment on zoning setbacks. The Alameda Spite House is still standing and occupied.
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. [27] The children asked to erect a monument in the churchyard in memory of Joseph's 41-year tenure at the church. [27] 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. [27] 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. [27] The Edleston Spite House is still standing and occupied, and has MCMIV (1904) over the front door. [27]
In 1907 there was a "spite" church in Brooklyn, New York. It was built to take advantage of a law that forbade the operation of saloons within a certain distance of churches. Saloon owners brought suit against the church, arguing that the church was not a real church and no worship was practiced. The saloon owners won the case. [28]
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. [29] 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. [29] The O'Reilly Spite House is still standing [29] and is occupied by an interior decorating firm as of mid-2009 [update] . [30]
The Sam Kee Building, built in 1913 in Vancouver, British Columbia, is a spite house and one of the narrowest commercial buildings in the world, considered the narrowest by Guinness World Records. The city widened the street and took a large part of Kee's land, who then built a 4-foot-11-inch-wide (1.5 m) building on the remaining very small parcel of land.
Before 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. [31] 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. [31] 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. [31] The Sarajevo Spite House operates today as a restaurant called Inat Kuća (which means "Spite House"). [31]
In 1922, The Pink House was built in Newbury, Massachusetts. According to local legend, as per the terms of a divorce settlement, a man was required to build an exact replica of his house for his now ex-wife, but since the wife had failed to specify where the house be built, he built in the Great Marsh on the edge of town with saltwater plumbing. [32] [33]
In 1925, according to one common story, a Montlake, Seattle, Washington neighbor made an insultingly low offer for a tiny slice of adjoining land. [34] Out of spite for the low offer, the builder built an 860-square-foot (80 m2) house that blocked the neighbors' open space. [34] However, there are other stories about how the house came to be, making its origins murky. [35] The house is 55 inches (1.4 m) wide at the south end, and 15 feet (4.6 m) wide at the north end. [34] [35] The Montlake Spite House is still standing and occupied. [34] [35]
The Skinny Building is only 5 feet 2 inches (1.57 m) wide, rivaling the Sam Kee Building in Vancouver which is considered the narrowest commercial building by Guinness World Records. Its narrow lot was created in 1903 by a street widening project, and the building itself was constructed in 1926 by Louis Hendel (c. 1874–1945), partly out of spite for neighboring business owners who complained about him obstructing the sidewalk with his fruit-selling business. The building is still standing, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property in the Fourth Avenue Historic District.
In 1934, Corina Kavanagh, of Irish descent, commissioned the building of a skyscraper in Buenos Aires, the iconic Kavanagh Building, at the time the highest skyscraper in Latin America. Local legend holds that Corina Kavanagh sought to arrange a marriage between one of her daughters and the son of the Anchorena family, one of the wealthiest and most traditional aristocratic families of the country; the Anchorenas, however, refused. Out of revenge, she had her high-rise building built between the Anchorena's palace and the church the family had erected on the opposing side of the adjoining square. [36]
In the 1950s, two Virginia City, Nevada neighbors got into a dispute. [37] 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. [37] The Virginia City Spite House is still standing and occupied. [37]
In 1954, a thin wedge-shaped building was erected by architects Salah and Fawzi Itani on a 120 sq m plot in Beirut, Lebanon at the request of a man wanting to spoil the sea view of his brother after they failed to agree to jointly develop their neighboring plots. The street facade appears to be an ordinary apartment building, but is 60 cm at the narrowest and four meters at the widest. It is known as Al Ba'sa (The Middle Finger) and formerly as The Queen Mary due to its resemblance to the cruise ship. [38]
Film producer George Lucas had wanted to construct a movie studio on land that he owned in Marin County, California. After facing years of opposition, Lucas abandoned the project in 2012. Instead, he decided to construct a low-income housing development. While some sources have speculated that the low-income housing proposal was to spite the high-income residents in the wealthy county, [39] Lucas himself rejected that characterization. [40]
The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, is infamous for its anti-LGBT picketing. The humanitarian charity Planting Peace purchased a house across the street from the church and, in 2013, had it painted to match the colors of the rainbow pride flag. [41] It was named the 'Equality House' and has received worldwide attention and media coverage. [41] In 2016, Planting Peace acquired the house next door to the Equality House and painted it the colors of the transgender pride flag. [42] The houses provide shelter to volunteers [41] and a community garden. [43]
The Victoria Hotel in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is designed around two older properties, Nos. 45 - 47 Prins Hendrikkade, that the hotel was unable to purchase owing to high prices. [44] [45] This idiosyncrasy was explored in the book and subsequent film Publieke werken (Public Works). The film is also known as A Noble Intention (2015).
Edgar Allan Poe's "The Business Man", (written in 1839 or 1840) includes the following passage in the voice of Peter Proffit, a confidence trickster who describes himself as a legitimate businessman. Proffit's attempted scam is to build a spite house and extort his neighbors to pay him to tear it down. (He calls this line of business 'the Eye-Sore trade'.)
Whenever a rich old hunks, or prodigal heir, or bankrupt corporation, gets into the notion of putting up a palace, there is no such thing in the world as stopping either of them, and this every intelligent person knows. The fact in question is indeed the basis of the Eye-Sore trade. As soon, therefore, as a building project is fairly afoot by one of these parties, we merchants secure a nice corner of the lot in contemplation, or a prime little situation just adjoining or tight in front. This done, we wait until the palace is half-way up, and then we pay some tasty architect to run us up an ornamental mud hovel, right against it; or a Down-East or Dutch Pagoda, or a pig-sty, or an ingenious little bit of fancy work, either Esquimau, Kickapoo, or Hottentot. Of course, we can't afford to take these structures down under a bonus of five hundred per cent upon the prime cost of our lot and plaster. Can we? I ask the question. I ask it of business men. It would be irrational to suppose that we can.
In season 10 of Curb Your Enthusiasm , Larry David opens coffee shop Latte Larry's as a "spite store" to get revenge on the neighboring store, Mocha Joe's.
Montlake is a wealthy residential neighborhood in central Seattle, Washington. It is located along the Montlake Cut of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, bounded to the north by Portage Bay, to the east by the Washington Park Arboretum, and to the south and west by Interlaken Park. Capitol Hill is on its south and west sides, and the University of Washington campus lies across the Montlake Cut to the north. State Route 520 runs through the northern tip of Montlake, isolating four blocks from the rest of the neighborhood. The (unofficial) City Clerk's map of Montlake considers it to extend further west, past Interlaken Park, extending to Broadway Avenue E. and, between Lynn Street and State Route 520, all the way to Interstate 5.
Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and the area was fully built by around 1900. It is most famous for its rows of Victorian brownstone homes—considered one of the best preserved examples of 19th-century urban design in the United States—as well as numerous architecturally significant individual buildings, and cultural institutions such as the Boston Public Library, and Boston Architectural College. Initially conceived as a residential-only area, commercial buildings were permitted from around 1890, and Back Bay now features many office buildings, including the John Hancock Tower, Boston's tallest skyscraper. It is also considered a fashionable shopping destination and home to several major hotels.
Copp's Hill is an elevation in the historic North End of Boston, Massachusetts. It is bordered by Hull Street, Charter Street and Snow Hill Street. The hill takes its name from William Copp, a shoemaker who lived nearby. Copp's Hill Burying Ground is a stop on the Freedom Trail.
Gainford or Gainford on Tees is a village on the north bank of the River Tees in County Durham, England. It is half-way between Barnard Castle and Darlington, near Winston, at OS map reference NZ 1716.
The Prudential Tower, also known as the Prudential Building or, colloquially, the Pru, is an international style skyscraper in Boston, Massachusetts. The building, a part of the Prudential Center complex, currently stands as the 2nd-tallest building in Boston, behind the John Hancock Tower. The Prudential Tower was designed by Charles Luckman and Associates for Prudential Insurance. Completed in 1964, the building is 749 feet (228 m) tall, with 52 floors, and is tied with others as the 114th-tallest in the United States. It contains 1.2 million sq ft (110,000 m2) of commercial and retail space. Including its radio mast, the tower's pinnacle height reaches 907 feet (276 m).
The Custom House Tower is a skyscraper in McKinley Square, in the Financial District neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The original building was constructed in 1837–47 and was designed by Ammi Burnham Young in the Greek Revival style. The tower was designed by Peabody and Stearns and was added in 1913–15. The building is part of the Custom House District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The Kavanagh Building is a residential skyscraper in Retiro, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Designed in 1934 by architects Gregorio Sánchez, Ernesto Lagos and Luis María de la Torre, it is considered a pinnacle of modernist architecture. At the time of its inauguration in 1936, the Kavanagh was the tallest building in Latin America surpassing the Palacio Salvo built in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1928, as well as the tallest building in the world with a reinforced concrete structure.
The Abasto Shopping is one of the biggest shopping mall centers in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The building was the central wholesale fruit and vegetable market in the city from 1893 to 1984. Since 1999, it has served as a shopping mall. It is also famous for being in the area where the tango singer Carlos Gardel, known as El Morocho del Abasto, lived for most of his life. Today, the surrounding area, though part of the Balvanera neighbourhood, is sometimes referred to as Abasto.
John Calvin Stevens was an American architect who worked in the Shingle Style, in which he was a major innovator, and the Colonial Revival style. He designed more than 1,000 buildings in the state of Maine.
In property law, a spite fence is an overly tall fence or a row of trees, bushes, or hedges, constructed or planted between adjacent lots by a property owner, who is annoyed with or wishes to annoy a neighbor, or who wishes to completely obstruct the view between lots. Several U.S. states and local governments have regulations to prohibit spite fences, or related regulations such as those establishing a maximum allowed height for fences. In the United Kingdom, the terms spite wall or blinder wall are more commonly used.
Long Island is located in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts. The island is part of the City of Boston, and of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. The island is 1.75 miles (2.82 km) long and covers 225 acres (0.9 km2).
St Olave's Church, Old Jewry, sometimes known as Upwell Old Jewry, was a church in the City of London located between the street called Old Jewry and Ironmonger Lane. Destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, the church was rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. The church was demolished in 1887, except for the tower and west wall, which remain today.
The Empire Building is an office building and early skyscraper at 71 Broadway, on the corner of Rector Street, in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. It was designed by Kimball & Thompson in the Classical Revival style and built by Marc Eidlitz & Son from 1897 to 1898. The building consists of 21 stories above a full basement story facing Trinity Place at the back of the building and is 293 feet (89 m) tall. The Empire Building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a NRHP district created in 2007.
The Skinny House is an extremely narrow four-story house at 44 Hull Street in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is reported by the Boston Globe as having the "uncontested distinction of being the narrowest house in Boston." According to the executive director of the Boston Landmarks Commission, "In a city where there are many narrow lots, this far exceeds the norm. ... As far as we know, it is the narrowest house in Boston." According to local legend, it was built as a spite house.
The Spite House, also known as the Thomas McCobb House, is a historic house at Deadman's Point in Rockport, Maine. Built in 1806 in Phippsburg, it is a high quality example of Federal period architecture. It was built by Thomas McCobb as a deliberately elaborate building to exceed in quality the fine house in which he had grown up, which he had lost in a family dispute. It was moved to its current location in 1925, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
The Charles Shipman Payson Building is the most recent expansion of the Portland Museum of Art (PMA) in Portland, Maine, located on the corner of High Street and Congress Square. Henry N. Cobb designed the Payson Building, which introduced over five times more gallery space than in the adjacent, historic PMA buildings. The building opened in 1983 after Mr. Payson donated 17 Winslow Homer paintings and ten million dollars to the museum. Similar in theme to these Homer paintings, the Payson building contains a collection of contemporary paintings and short-term exhibitions created by Maine artists, focusing on regional themes.
St. Mary's Catholic Church is a parish of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. The church is located in Guttenberg, Iowa, United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as St. Mary's Catholic Church Historic District. In addition to the church, the historic district includes the parish rectory, convent, and school building.
West Oaks is a small subdivision in Houston, Texas. It is east of, and in close proximity to, Tanglewood proper. Mimi Swartz of National Geographic wrote that compared to River Oaks, West Oaks is "more nondescript". Beginning in the 1990s, George H. W. Bush became a resident of the neighborhood.
The Skinny House in Mamaroneck, New York, was built in 1932 by African-American carpenter and building contractor Nathan Thomas Seely on an extremely narrow lot of donated land after he lost his home to foreclosure and his company to bankruptcy during the early years of the Great Depression. The 10 feet (3.0 m) wide house has 3 stories and was built on a 12.5 feet (3.8 m) wide plot of land sold to him by his neighbor, to whom he had earlier sold a larger plot of land. The house was constructed entirely from salvaged materials. The New York State Board for Historic Preservation noted “its efficient and beautiful design, careful engineering, and effective interior plan. Challenged by a narrow lot and minimal financial means, Seely created a house that demonstrated both his ingenuity and the desire to provide, above all else, housing for his family.” The Westchester County Historical Society said “its professional construction and ingenious design are a testimony to the dedication of a prominent black contractor to build a solid, functional, and delightful home. It represents both black enterprise and good neighborliness, and is architecturally significant as a symbol of American ingenuity and craftsmanship.”
The Hollensbury Spite House is a spite house located at 523 Queen Street in Alexandria, Virginia. The narrow building measures 7-feet 6-inches wide and is often called the skinniest house in the United States. The house has drawn international attention, being covered by numerous news outlets, and was once featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show. It is frequently visited by tourists who often pose in front of the building and is also included on local history tours. The house is 350 square-feet but also includes an outdoor patio and garden, providing additional entertaining space. Because of its narrow front door and small interior space, the house is decorated with smaller furniture pieces and antiques.
Contrariada por la oposición de los Anchorena, Corina, algo resentida, quiso ensombrecer una hermosa obra arquitectónica que también hoy deleita a los turistas y transeúntes que pasean por Retiro: la iglesia del Santísimo Sacramento, que los Anchorena habían construido hacia 1920 para utilizarla como sepulcro familiar.