iPhone Wednesday #7: Edith's House is Going "UP"

Photo & Text Copyright 2009 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

I passed by Edith Macefield's little house yesterday and noticed it's been gutted and this sign is now stretched across it. I've shown you this house several times before and you may recall the story of the octogenarian who didn't wish to sell her home when a three story development went up all around her--part of the inspiration for the Pixar film "UP"). I stopped and chatted with the construction folks about what project is going on with. They told me Edith's house is literally going up. Three stories in fact, if all goes well with the planned lift for the development of "Credo Square." No, they are not placing it on the roof of the Ballard Blocks complex, but putting two stories underneath it. According to the two guys I spoke with, Edith willed her house to the construction manager who checked in on her every day, took her grocery shopping and to appointments, etc. She had no heirs and wanted the manager to sell it if she died and use the money for his kid's college tuition, and that's what he has done. Edith passed away in her home some months ago before the construction going on all around her was completed. The buyers, Greg and Shauna Pinneo of Reach Returns, are preserving the shell of Edith's house to pay homage to her and all those who admired her tenacity in turning down a million dollars to move from her home and the effect it has had on the community. According to the crew members, there will be an opportunity for people to record the personal creeds they live by on tiles and have them placed in an art installation in Edith's house.
It is my 7th in the iPhone Wednesday series where I take and edit the shot using only the iPhone and apps.

Madrona

Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

Happy first day of summer to you. The sun's warmth is a welcome presence after a fairly dreary spring. I shot this close up of colorful Madrona tree bark yesterday evening during a walk along the Magnolia bluff above Elliott Bay.

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha

Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

. . .what will she decide after she hears all the testimony? That's the question utmost in many Seattlites' minds this week. Judge Marsha Pechman must rule in the Key Arena lease agreement suit the City of Seattle has brought against the new owners (2006) of the Seattle Super Sonics NBA basketball team. Do emails reveal they planned from the beginning to move the team to Oklahoma City as soon as possible and not honor the remainder of their Key Arena lease? Their proposal last year for a mostly publicly funded mega dollar shiny new stadium in the suburb of Renton was rejected outright, and they didn't offer to invest heavily in it themselves, so was it ever intended to be a viable deal? Now that the NBA has given the owners permission to move the team to Oaklahoma City, is Seattle right to hold them to the remaining two years of their lease agreement and not accept a buyout? Sonics fans have taken to the streets with a Save Our Sonics movement of grassroots support to keep the team on home turf. The judge is expected to rule after testimony ends June 26.

Ballard Syttende Mai Parade Sea Serpent

Photo & Text Copyright 2008 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

Seattle's 2008 Syttende Mai Parade wended its way through the Ballard neighborhood in 87 F degree heat yesterday evening. This sea serpent appears to have devoured poor Leif, but delighted the warm children along the route with mist from its nostrils and squirts of water from it's pal, the Norwegian Spitting Fish. For lots more photos, see my Flickr page.