Nail Houses
If you happen to live in one of the countries1 in which Pixar has chosen to release their latest movie before now, then you might already have seen their latest 3D rendered movie, Up; in which the protagonist’s home is the last remaining property that stands in the way of enormous modern building developments.2
Unlike in Up however, the real life properties that find themselves in this situation don’t just float away, and their refusal to be moved has earned them the moniker of Nail Houses.
Edith Macefield moved into her home in Seattle in 1966, and in recent years turned down many increasingly large offers from developers looking to build on her land. In the end the developers decided to build the complex anyway, leaving her home boxed in on three sides. In the Street View images we can see the construction underway all around her little home, with her distinctive blue car parked outside visible even from satellite.
Edith sadly died in June last year, but since then her home was actually used as part of a publicity stunt promoting Pixar’s movie, and remains for the moment, as a reminder of what can be achieved by refusing to be steamrolled.
In Washington D.C., a Mr. Austin Spriggs reportedly turned down an offer of 3 million dollars for his property as it was directly in the way of a massive new development. Mr. Spriggs was apparently seeking a loan to open up a pizza restaurant on the premises, but when the Street View car passed, this was clearly still some way from becoming a reality.
It turns out that there are people all over the place who have decided, for the sake of pride, morals, or plain stubbornness, to remain in their homes no matter what. Here’s the home of a man who lives in the car park of the St. Alexius hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota. I wonder if he gets free parking?
Not even the biggest of companies can always get their own way either. At Microsoft’s Redmond West campus there’s one solitary private property, which was apparently left alone under the agreement that the house could stay there until the present owners died.
The phenomenon of “homeowner holdout” isn’t just constrained to private homes either. At Tokyo’s Narita Airport, the proposed layout of the tarmac was completely ruined by several farmers, who steadfastly refused to sell their land to the airport. You can see how the runways weave around the various farms that get in their way, as well as being split into tiny, useless segments by other bits of farmland.
I’m sure that this post only scratches the surface of this topic, so do you know of any nail houses in your area, and what’s the story behind them?
Wikipedia has more info on Nail Houses, and we wrote a story in 2006 about The Man Who Lives in the Middle of the M62. Thanks to Boing Boing and Deputy Dog.
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If like me you live in the UK then you’ll have to wait until October! Disgusting, I know. ↩
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Those of us old enough to remember movies in 1987 may instead prefer a reference to the nail house in *batteries not included. ↩
I’m afraid I don’t have any information about it, but there’s what appears to be a fire station nail house with the http://www.seminoleheights.org/ church complex built around it.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
nail house in braintree, ma, usa:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
i grew up around here but i don’t know the story around the house.
I never knew they were called nail houses.
One odd thing – on the satellite view of Mr Spriggs’ house in Washington… the house doesn’t seem to be there! Was it knocked down anyway, or is it somehow hidden? It ought to be right there in the gap between the two big buildings, judging by Street View.
Do you think that maybe it’s just hidden in the shadows way at the bottom of the huge tower block? The buildings either side are /very/ tall after all, and could the car be his?
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
You can see his car in this photo:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2428/3614430296_17818223d2_o.jpg
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=qjs9858sx6ss&style=b&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&scene=14938621&encType=1
Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, NJ
According to wikipedia:
“The complex was at the center of a major eminent domain court case in the mid-1990s, when Trump Enterprises sought to obtain the property of Vera Coking, a retired homeowner whose house was adjacent to Trump Plaza. (picture) In Coking vs. C.R.D.A., Donald Trump, and Trump Plaza, Mrs. Coking was victorious,[1] and plans to build a limousine parking lot on her property were thwarted.”
Alex – Could be. Looks like his car (seems to be a pickup truck). I’m a bit surprised you can’t see the roof of the house at all, though!
The famous “nail house” in Chongqing, China, of which photos did the rounds a year or two ago, is no more, as can be seen on Google Maps:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
(Its the second house featured on this site: http://deputy-dog.com/2009/06/6-extraordinarily-stubborn-nail-houses.html )
Wow, the farm splitting runway 16L/34R at Narita even looks fortified.
What strikes me as nearly equally odd though: There’s an insane number of golf courses around the airport, clearly and obviously visible if one zooms out a bit.
On my (adbittedly quite large) screen I count at least 18 of them in this view: Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
There’s an ancient nail house sitting at the top of a narrow pillar of rock in the centre of the historic limestone quarries (now the Archaeological Park) in Syracuse, Sicily. I can’t find it on Google Maps but there’s a photo here http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2955865280059392565WDccUT
You forgot perhaps one of the most famous of all. 80 acre strawberry field down the street from Disneyland.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
After many years of saying no to Disney, the family finally sold a few years ago for almost $100 million. Not bad for a $10,000 investment.
Here’s one. It’s in Mountain View, California. It’s an old house wedged in between a shopping center that includes a McDonalds, a Krispy Kreme, a strip mall that includes a variety of shops, and a Costco (large warehouse store).
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Here’s one in downtown Boston, MA. I walk past this from time to time.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Lost a little in the shadows, but I used to live in the hi-rise condo bldg just to the northwest of this nail house in Toronto. Entire area was re-developed in the 60s with condos and apts except for this one spot. Story was they were holding out for too much cash and developer just gave up and said fine, we’ll build around you.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
What kind of idiot passes up $3 Million big ones to open up a pizza parlor!?!?
The kind who preferred real neighbours.
Other techniques in use include strip barriers, whereby someone retains a narrow strip of land – often a matter of inches wide – stopping passage onto a property, and chessboarding, where a small but essential plot is bought by an opponent of a scheme and sold off in 1 mm squares for marginal amounts to like-minded sumpathisers, making compulsory purchase requisitions prohibitively expensive – this is a technique currently in use against Heathrow’s proposed new runway.
Look Mate, if he preferred “real neighbors” take the $3 Mil and run off to a nice quiet neighborhood with lots and lots of “real” neighbors…….common sense.
There is a children’s book by Virginia Lee Burton entitled “The Little House”. It describes a “nail house” that gradually has a city grow up around it. I blame this book for the reason why I became interested in the built enrivonment.
See the story at http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hgoe75.htm which describes the battle that took place in San Francisco in 1876 on Nob Hill between one of the wealthiest San Franciscans Charles Crocker and his neighbor Nicholas Yung who refused to sell his property to Crocker at the price Crocker offered. Crocker in turn built a 26 foot tall “spite” fence around Yung’s property until his family was forced to move. The story is still told in San Francisco today
The guy in DC didn’t want ‘real neighbors’, he wanted to turn the house into a pizza place. This was an insane idea, the restaurant would have to be split among the ground floor, second floor and basement because the house is fairly small. For $3 million, he could have opened a half a dozen restaurants and still have money left over, instead of spending God knows what converting the house, which still hasn’t happened as far as I know.
Amongst all the parking lots behind the Mirage and Treasure Island casinos in Las Vegas is a lone apartment building. I can’t find the story, but I recall this was also a holdout from when Steve Wynn was scooping up all the land to build the Treasure Island casino…
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
there is a book called ‘holdouts’ about this phenomenon in NYC with great examples, mostly from the 1920’s but modern ones as well.
This post reminded me of a website I cam across a few months back. Similar concept, but the dead are granted eternal sleep in their original spots. I suppose you could call these nail graveyards.
Its a fascinating collection.
http://www.roadsideresort.com/blog/paved-paradise-cemeteries-in-parking-lots
Manhattan has many holdouts, and my favorite is the one that occupied the corner of 34th where Macys was built. If you look, the Herald Square store wraps around a smaller structure, which I think was a bank at the time. Now they own that building too, and it holds up their iconic sign.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
will be torn down soon