An 84 y/o woman was the alleged real-life inspiration for the movie ‘Up’. She refused to sell her house for upwards of millions of dollars and forced the builders to finally give up and make the entire mall around her house.
advertisement
If you’ve ever seen the movie ‘Up’ and cried uncontrollably at the first scene where ‘Carl’ and ‘Ellie’ build their dream house, then you’ll also be familiar with the story of Carl refusing to give up his house as builders continued to break things apart and build right around him.
Edith Macefield is the real-life Carl.
Fox
Her small farmhouse stands definitely in the middle of a multimillion-dollar mall that stretches up to 5 stories high.
In 2006, developers were so desperate, that they offered to buy the property from her for a million dollars.
Fox
advertisement
Macefield had rejected that offer, after initially buying her home for just $3,750 in 1952. She shared the home with her mother Alice and used to work as a store manager at the time.
Fox
While Carl hated the construction team that worked around him, Macefield had struck up a strange friendship with those around her.
Fox
advertisement
The construction manager Barry Martin would often drive her to beauty appointments, help with the laundry, make her meals and take her to the doctor.
When Edit finally died in 2008, she left the home to Martin.
Fox
advertisement
Sadly, that was when the recession started and Martin had to sell off the house.
He said that he had in fact gotten the go-ahead from Edith before she died. “She told me to hold out until I got my price. I sold it for $310,000.”
He also revealed that Macefield wasn’t against the mall. She just didn’t want to move. Having died just two years later, it seems she knew what she was doing.
Fox
advertisement
Martin further added, “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.”
The home would allegedly become an inspiration for Up, the Disney blockbuster, although Disney officials claim that was not the case.
Fox
advertisement
However, during the promotion of the movie, they had placed balloons on the house, much like Carl did when he made his grand escape.
“They wanted to put balloons on the house for their premiere here in Seattle. So they came out and put balloons on the house and took a picture, and that’s how it became the Up house.”
Martin said, “After I saw the movie, there were actually some photographs that look very similar to the picture in the movie.”
Fox
advertisement
The house still stands tall as a cultural cornerstone at 1438, NW 46th st. Be sure to pop into the mall while you’re there.
Fox