Spite house
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 exhibit strange and impractical structures.Purpose
Spite houses may deliberately obstruct light, block access to neighboring buildings, or be flagrant symbols of defiance. Spite house are a particularly local kind of hostile architecture meant to annoy/irritate a particular person.
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. 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.
Spite houses, as well as spite farms, are considerably rarer than spite fences. This is partially because 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 building construction. 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.Examples
Old Spite House, Marblehead, MA
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 each refused to sell to the other. Another explanation is that the 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. The Old Spite House is still standing and occupied.
McCobb Spite House, Rockport, ME
In 1806, Thomas McCobb, heir to his father's land and shipbuilding business, returned home to Phippsburg, Maine, from sea to discover that his stepmother had inherited the family "Mansion in the Wilderness". Upset about his loss, McCobb built a house directly across from the McCobb mansion to spite his stepmother. 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.
Tyler Spite House, Frederick, MD
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. The city made plans to extend Record Street south through Tyler's land to meet West Patrick Street. 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. To spite the city, Tyler immediately had workmen pour a building foundation, which was discovered by the road crews the next morning.In 1830, John Hollensbury's home in Alexandria, Virginia, was one of two houses that directly bordered an alley that attracted an annoying lot of horse-drawn wagon traffic and loiterers. To prevent people from using the alleyway, Hollensbury constructed a,,, two-story house using the existing brick walls of the adjacent houses for the sides of the new one. The brick walls of the Hollensbury Spite House living room have gouges from wagon-wheel hubs, and the house is still standing and occupied.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. Each had previously inherited land from their deceased father. While the second brother was away serving in the military, the first brother built himself a large home, leaving the soldier only a shred of property that the first brother felt certain was too tiny to build on. 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. The outside of the house spans and tapers to in the rear.Schilling Spite House, Hiawatha, KS
In 1880, Adam Schilling owned a tract of adjoining the town of Hiawatha, Kansas. Schilling sold three-quarters of an acre of this land, on which a house eventually was built and became owned by James Falloon. Together, the 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. To spite his neighbor, Schilling then built a cheap tenement house on his own property 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.The Richardson Spite House in New York City at Lexington Avenue and 82nd Street was built in 1882 and demolished in 1915. It was four stories tall, 104 feet wide, and only five feet 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 apartment building with eight suites, each consisting of three rooms and a bath.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 also had no windows at all on the side facing the aunt's mansion.Salem Spite House, Salem, MA
At some point before 1898, a house was erected in Salem, Massachusetts, to "cut off the view of a neighbor". 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".In the 19th century, a butcher in Collinsville, Connecticut, feuded with his neighbor. To spite his neighbor, the butcher built between their adjoining houses a narrow, two-story structure with windows covered by Venetian blinds. 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. The butcher's son got along with the family next door and eventually tore down the Collinsville Spite House.
Freeport Spite House, Freeport, NY
Also in the 19th century, a Freeport, New York, developer who opposed all of Freeport's 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. The Freeport Spite House is still standing and occupied.Alameda Spite House, Alameda, CA
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. To spite both the city and an unsympathetic neighbor, Froling built a house deep, long and high on the tiny strip of land left to him. 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. The children asked to erect a monument in the churchyard in memory of Joseph's 41-year tenure at the church. 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. Feeling slighted, the family immediately set about building themselves a house on their land with a column erected next to the churchyard so it towered over the trees. The Edleston Spite House is still standing and occupied, and has MCMIV over the front door.Spite Church, Brooklyn, NY
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.O'Reilly Spite House, Cambridge, MA
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. After the neighbor refused to buy the land, O'Reilly built a building, measuring long and only wide, to spite the neighbor. The O'Reilly Spite House is still standing and is occupied by an interior decorating firm.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 building on the remaining very small parcel of land.