84-Year-Old Woman Refused Millions Of Dollars Forcing Developers To Build Mall Around Her House

Developers are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to building new places in the name of globalization. However, an elderly woman made sure not to bow down to them.

84-year-old Edith Macefield became a local hero after she forced developers to build their mall around her house and even turned down a million-dollar offer for her farmhouse. The house is still standing tall right in the middle of the five-storey complex around it.

This entire episode occurred back in 2006 in Seattle, Washington.

According to the Seattle Times, the elderly woman bought the property for $3,750 in 1952 and lived there with her mother Alice while working as a store manager at local cleaners.

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The 108-years-old home wasn't really that costly. However, property developers had been taking out other homes in the area so that they could construct a brand new shopping mall. So, initially, the developers offered Macefield $750,000 before upping the figure to $1 million.

Edith was adamant that she won't level the place and refused the offer. So the builders were left with no option other than to build the complex around the house.

But this was not just it. Edith went on to become friends with the person who was the construction manager for the mall in 2006 named Barry Martin. She didn't see him as her rival but asked for his help and favours when she was alive.

The two become so close that Edith left her house to Martin when she died in 2008. Sadly, Martin ended up having to sell the property when he found himself out of work during an economic "downturn."

In an interview with Strange Inheritance, the former manager recalled his conversations with Edith.

"A lot of people thought she was against the development, but that wasn¡¯t the case at all. It was more a case of she didn¡¯t want to go through the exercise of having to move. She told me to hold out until I got my price. I sold it for $310,000,¡± said Martin.

The house was also reported as the inspiration for Disney¡¯s 2009 film Up - which follows an elderly widower Carl Fredricksen who is reluctant to sell his house after developments spring up around it. However, it was later revealed that the production of the movie began in 2004 and Edith refused to sell much later.

Edith Macefield¡¯s small house became known as the ¡®Up¡¯ house after the 2009 Pixar movie pic.twitter.com/B0CLY9UVh6

¡ª Strange Inheritance (@StrangeFBN) February 16, 2016

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