Hendrix home may have new owner

Associated Press

SEATTLE — The childhood home of rock ‘n’ roll legend Jimi Hendrix appears to have won a last-minute reprieve from the wrecking ball, thanks to a developer with extensive holdings in Everett.

The ivory-hued house with purple trim where Hendrix used to leap from the roof as a boy, pretending to be Flash Gordon, was sold on eBay in August for $43,500, but the Michigan-based buyer backed out after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

A pitch to billionaire Hendrix fan Paul Allen, who built the $250 million Experience Music Project, got nowhere. EMP, which has a permanent Hendrix exhibit, has no interest in the house as an artifact.

A condominium developer said this week the Central Area home could be demolished within two weeks.

After two hours of negotiation Thursday, Craig Dieffenbach, a developer and former business manager for Jimi’s brother Leon Hendrix, said he had a plan and the money to save the 900-square-foot house.

Dieffenbach, who owns a number of buildings in downtown Everett, said he would present owner Michael Hilow with about $4,000 in earnest money Friday to ensure that the house will be moved by Nov. 16. The two then plan to sign a contract.

Hilow and his wife are building 16 condominiums around the site. Eight have been constructed so far, and the old Hendrix home will have to come down before the project is completed.

Hendrix was born in 1942, and his family lost the house in 1956.

"I loved that house," said Leon Hendrix, 52. "I don’t know how all this happened."

Henry Lewis, Leon Hendrix’s manager and a family friend, was determined to save the house, worth about $40,000 and sitting on land worth about $100,000, and turned to Dieffenbach

The plan is to move the 87-year-old structure to a temporary location pending location of a permanent site.

Where the house will end up and what it will become are still undetermined.

City council member Peter Steinbrueck said he would ask the National Urban League about making it into an African American museum.

"This is the only physical remnant (of Jimi’s) that we have," Steinbrueck said. "This is the only place that had a degree of stability for him. We have to save it."

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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