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Boston’s skinniest home built out of spite in inheritance row goes on market for $1.2m

The house has an odd history attached to it that goes back to the 1800s

Shweta Sharma
Thursday 12 August 2021 16:16 BST
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The Skinny House, an iconic landmark property in Boston’s North End, is up for sale on the market for $1.2mn
The Skinny House, an iconic landmark property in Boston’s North End, is up for sale on the market for $1.2mn (CL Properties)

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The famous “skinny house” in Boston – the city’s slimmest home, just 10 feet wide and 30 feet long – is up for sale again, this time for $1.2 million.

The house, located in the city’s North End at 44 Hull Street, was listed for sale on Monday by Carmela Laurella of CL Properties for the first time since 2017, when it was sold for $900,000, reported The Boston Globe.

The four-story building has a roof deck, private garden, two bedrooms, kitchen and a bathroom. It narrows down further to a mere 9.25 feet wide at the rear and measures about 1,165 square feet.

A plaque at the front of the home has “The Skinny House (Spite House)” engraved on it, referring to an odd history that dates back to the 1800s.

The land on which the house was built was inherited by two brothers after their father died. But while one sibling was fighting in the Civil War, the other one constructed a sprawling property on the plot, according to the report.

The entrance of the house is tucked away in the alleyway
The entrance of the house is tucked away in the alleyway (CL Properties)

The brother who returned from the war decided to take revenge on his sibling by building a house on the remaining piece of land to ruin the view for his brother.

The property, up for grabs now, has a kitchen on the first level with a stone countertop and a dining area. The second level manages to squeeze in a living area, dining nook and the house’s only bathroom.

The third level has one bedroom and the top floor has the master bedroom.

The house has been named “The Skinny House (Spite House)"
The house has been named “The Skinny House (Spite House)" (L Properties)

This is not the only house to have been erected due to brotherly spite. In Lebanon’s Beirut, the country’s skinniest building known as the “The Grudge”, was erected with the sole purpose of blocking the seafront view of a brother’s house.

Another house, skinnier with a six-feet width, was up for sale in London earlier this year. In Illinois, there is an odd-shaped house just 3-foot wide on one side.

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