Talk:Spite house

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 January 2020 and 12 May 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Nikolvladinska.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:01, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Freeport
I'm originally from Freeport, NY, though I haven't been there in ages. I can't picture a spite house at the corner of Wilson & Lena. Google Maps doesn't seem to show anything of the sort (but the article says it's still standing). Any clues? - Jmabel | Talk 20:53, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Aha! There's a good online source here. This should probably be expanded slightly in the article. It's not the usual small house on a seemingly unbuildable lot. It's a large house on a large (roughly triangular) lot, which was built to stop Lena Avenue from proceeding straight west past Long Beach Avenue. - Jmabel | Talk 21:02, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I love this Article
I'm a real estate appraiser in Massachusetts and I love this article. I'm pretty sure I know of a few spite houses and will try to see if I can remember where they are, and find sources. Great article! Beamathan (talk) 13:35, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I took photos of the Skinny House today, added one to this article, and wrote an article about that house itself. - House of Scandal (talk) 00:30, 26 March 2008 (UTC)    P.S. - Yes, we are a spiteful bunch here in the Bay State!

Commons
Just a reminder to those who have added pictures to this article: if you place your articles on the Commons, they can be used by other-language Wikipedias. I've set up a Commons:Category:Spite houses. - Jmabel | Talk 00:54, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

I would also like to say what an interesting and well-written piece this is. Thank you for adding to it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.221.88.180 (talk) 16:43, 13 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Came here to say this! Putting this is my back pocket for a fun bit of trivia. PineTreeCamper (talk) 05:15, 17 February 2023 (UTC)

Greeba Castle, Greeba Towers
The Isle of Man has what may well be a spite house, Greeba Towers: a very odd-looking house built bang next door to an equally odd-looking house that was owned by the novelist Hall Caine. The house is mentioned on page 229 of Vivien Allen's Hall Caine: Portrait of a Victorian Romancer (1997, viewable on Google Books).  45ossington (talk) 06:42, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Is this one a spite house?
This looks remarkably like a spite house. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32565289/ --BladeBronson (talk) 23:51, 26 August 2009 (UTC)
 * There's no mention of spite in the article about it. It appears to just be a house that was constructed with unusual dimensions because that was all that would fit within the available space. Some very famous people even lived there later, so it does not seem to be entirely unsuited to residence. —BarrelProof (talk) 22:01, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

Links to maps?
How do we link to something like Google Maps street view? I think it would be nice to be able to see the places. --Dwchin (talk) 06:33, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't think there's a standard way to do Street View on Wikipedia, but there is the coord template that links to maps, so a user can choose to do it themselves: you can specify it as  which gives you 42.38323°N, -71.133°W at around 100 meters across. --Closeapple (talk) 08:11, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

Hamilton Hall, St Andrews
I came across this article and was wondering whether Hamilton Hall in St Andrews, Fife, could be considered a spite house. As I understand it, Hamilton Hall was built by a man who was not allowed membership to the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, due to his being Jewish. His building stands out because of its use of red brick (it one of the only red brick buildings in the whole town), and because it is much taller than the R&A building. I did a quick Google search to verify this and found it mentioned in a Times article:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/construction_and_property/article6836085.ece

Does anyone think Hamilton Hall qualifies as a spite house? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.220.139.211 (talk) 12:38, 8 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I'd not think so, given its recorded history. Irish Melkite (talk) 14:07, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

Montlake spite house
Apparently, there are 2 or 3 variants on the explanation as to the Montlake spite house in Seattle Irish Melkite (talk) 14:03, 29 October 2013 (UTC)

names
I find it a little bit suspicious that so many of the edifices listed have italicized names of the same form:


 * The Richardson Spite House
 * The Old Spite House
 * The McCobb Spite House = Phippsburg Spite House
 * The Tyler Spite House
 * the Hollensbury Spite House
 * the Salem Spite House
 * the Collinsville Spite House
 * The Freeport Spite House
 * The Alameda Spite House
 * The Edleston Spite House
 * The O'Reilly Spite House
 * The Sarajevo Spite House
 * the Montlake Spite House
 * The Virginia City Spite House

How many of them are really known by such names? Does anyone in Virginia City say, "ah, that's the Virginia City Spite House"? —Tamfang (talk) 20:26, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Salt Lake Valley "spite house"
Should this count? The entire house wasn't built out of spite, but one particular part was littlebum2002 17:26, 5 May 2016 (UTC)

Boston Hyatt Harborside Hotel
The Boston Hyatt Harborside Hotel is built in the line of runway 14/21 at Boston Logan International Airport to mainly to prevent any extension of the runway. For now it also prevents departures taking off in the direction of the building and landings coming in over the building. Logan_International_Airport
 * This assertion might be supported by the reference in the Wikipedia article you mention, but isn't necessarily a "spite house". However, a Wikilink could be added to the "See also" section, with a brief note about why it might be of interest. Reify-tech (talk) 15:54, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

Spiteful decoration of a non-spiteful house
The beginning of the article draws a contrast between a spite house and a spite fence in two ways – by describing how building codes can prevent the construction of a spite house, and by saying that constructing a spite house is much more expensive that building a spite fence. But in the list of examples of spite houses, there are several trivial examples involving mere spite paint color. Picking an ugly paint color is outside the scope of building codes, and even cheaper than fence building. To me it seems clear that using an ugly paint color is not (by itself) an example of a spite house, and including such an example is a distraction from the topic of the article. The list of examples also includes a similarly trivial case in which a spite paint color scheme was combined with other spiteful decorations and lawn ornaments. The list could hypothetically be expanded to include many other such matters of mere decoration or other non-construction-related actions, such as spiteful flag poles, spiteful signage, spiteful lack of home maintenance (e.g. Steve Jobs' treatment of the Jackling House), spiteful general junkiness, spiteful storage of junk automobiles, spiteful landscaping, spiteful plant growth, spiteful animal husbandry, spiteful noise-making, spiteful smells, spiteful lighting, etc. I suggest that these items are off-topic distractions, but when I tried to remove one of them, another editor reverted the removal, saying that the paint scheme fit the definition of spitefully "modifying" a house. —BarrelProof (talk) 21:27, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

Highlights
Hi. I think instead of having so many examples on the page, we should just highlight a few of the very best. I know UnexpectedDave was compiling a list. Can anyone clarify?

Also, there was an episode of the Simpsons in which Stewie was going to build a spite house outside Roger's bedroom window. Also Emma Stone's character in Journey to the West built a spite house. TintinQuarantino (talk) 14:24, 20 March 2017 (UTC)

I see what you did there. :) UnexpectedDave (talk) 01:59, 26 March 2017 (UTC)

Alta Vista Club
There's also a claim online that the Alta Vista Club of Alexandria, Virginia was founded in order to build around the Hollensbury Spite House. Can anyone confirm this? TintinQuarantino (talk) 10:15, 25 March 2017 (UTC)

Hate Group
I understand many people feel this way, and its even stated by the SPLC, but the SPLC is not a government organization to officiate the church as a hate group. At this point its just opinion. Not arguing for, but people who read the church name already know who they are and what they do. No physical harm has ever been done by the group for it to be enacted as a hate group by the DHS, FBI, or CIA. Multiple articles on this. Even the White House has commented. It is what it is - let the reader formulate their own opinion on things. 2601:145:500:8011:B5EF:BAEE:28B6:AA51 (talk) 11:04, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

Spite Houses
We need articles on all of the spite houses. 23emr (talk) 17:20, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

on the job 23emr (talk) 17:25, 20 October 2020 (UTC)