The Stranger covers the Montlake spite house

September 10, 12:17 AMSeattle History ExaminerBenjamin Lukoff

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The Montlake spite house, 2022 24th Avenue E. at E. Boston Street.
Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Jmabel, some rights reserved

I must admit to being an infrequent reader of The Stranger, "Seattle's Only Newspaper," and I certainly didn't expect to find something of historical interest in its pages. That all changed the other day, when I came across an article by Jen Graves, "The House That Spite Builds," in the art section of the August 25 issue.

The Stranger article itself is more about the art show called Spite House, which runs through September 12 at Lawrimore Project, just south of the International District at 831 Airport Way S., but what caught my eye was the history of the house at 2022 24th Avenue E. at E. Boston Street in Montlake. Just 4.5 feet wide at the back, 15 feet at the front, I've passed it driving down 24th many a time, but never knew the history behind the place. Now, thanks to The Stranger, I do.

The spite house is built on lot 1, seen here on the original
plat map from the 1920s. At that time, what is now
E. Boston Street was named Graham Place.

As they explain, it's nothing so interesting as a wife getting the front yard in a divorce settlement and building a house there to spite her ex-husband, the gist of one urban legend — what happened was the owner of lot 2 wanted to buy lot 1, but offered such a low price that the owner of lot 1 built the current structure, blocking lot 2 from direct access to 24th Avenue. The owner of lot 2 ended up moving.

Same parcel on the modern quarter-section map.

I'd be interested in hearing about other such spite houses in the Seattle, King County, Washington, and Pacific Northwest areas. The 24th & Boston house is the only local one mentioned in the excellent Wikipedia article on the subject.