spite mound – Rachel Admas

I think Seattle mound houses, also known as spite mounds, and what led to their creation, are one of the coolest, most surreal things I’ve ever stumbled upon. Seattle as we know it today was built up by the timber industry and prostitution (the earnings from which went to establish the first public schools here!). A fire in 1989 completely changed – and literally reshaped – the city. Twenty-five city blocks were destroyed in the fire – the entire business district, half of downtown. railroad stations, and wharves.

Seattle is hilly as all hell, and back in the early 1900s, horses pulling buggies and humans walking through town were having absolutely none it. It was annoying to maneuver through the city with those inclines. What does one do when just about everything around them is destroyed? Use that destruction to completely change the city’s landscape forever.

For around 30 years, more than 50 million cubic yards, or about 7,000 Olympic swimming pools, of earth were moved from the city to the waterfront. Self-capsizing scows were used to transport the earth to the sea.

Land being dumped into the sea, Seattle, 1929

Regrading the city essentially required full demolition of all buildings, including houses. At the time, it was referred to as “the largest and boldest municipal regrade project in history.” And the approach to destroying many of the houses was equally dramatic.

Many of the houses that were to be removed from the hill did not have to be torn down. They were simply undermined by a stream of water, and when they tumbled into the hole they were set on fire.
V. V. Tarbill, 1930

Most folks were jazzed because it meant when they rebuilt, their property values would skyrocket.

However, as the story goes, some residents were not so pleased with this plan.

ENTER: THE MOUND HOUSE

Some folks were understandably not all that keen on having their houses or land destroyed by the city. They refused to vacate, so the regrade literally happened up to the edge of their properties, creating a surreal landscape of enormous singular mounds as the earth around them was removed. Another name for the houses were “spite mounds,” because even in the early 1900s people were cracking hilarious jokes.