“The end seems nearer than ever for the Jackling house, that rambling Jazz Age Woodside summer home designed by architect George Washington Smith for copper baron Daniel C. Jackling and owned since 1984 by Apple Corp. chief executive Steve Jobs, who’s been trying since 2001 to replace it with something smaller and more modern,” Dave Boyce reports for The Almanac.
Boyce reports, “Uphold Our Heritage, a group that sought to preserve the house as an important piece of Woodside history, on July 19 dropped its appeal of a March 2010 ruling by San Mateo County Superior Judge Marie S. Weiner that granted Mr. Jobs a demolition permit, said Doug Carstens, Uphold’s attorney.”
Mr. Jobs’ attorney, Howard Ellman, “when asked if he had a comment on Uphold’s decision to drop its appeal, replied: ‘No. The result speaks for itself. They abandoned the appeal and we’re going forward,'” Boyce reports. “Uphold’s decision ends a multi-year effort in the courts to stop Mr. Jobs. Uphold succeeded in preventing the demolition in a 2004 lawsuit, a decision that Mr. Jobs appealed but that was upheld by the state Courts of Appeal in 2007. Mr. Jobs then modified his demolition plans to address the issues noted in the 2004 decision and won a judgment in March.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Since 2001, a U.S. citizen has been trying to get “permission” to replace a house that he owns that sits on his own property. Nine (9) years. If that seems reasonable to you, you’re nuts.
Nuts is an understatement. Got to love the US legal system.
I wouldn’t even be interested in doing so after 9 years. Finally Steve can build his retirement home!
The best thing about being stonewalled by preservationists? They’re usually old, so they tend not to stick around. There’s some irony for you.
Further evidence of MDN’s revolutionary obsession with Steve Jobs is the regular updates we get from them on the very private and personal matter of Jobs residence.
Why, do you suppose, are we suppose to know all about his struggles regarding his personal house when MDN fully supports the manic secrecy of the way Jobs operates the public business of Apple Inc.
As an AAPL shareholder, I demand to know what’s going on with the company and what they are doing about building market share for the Mac into at least double digits, but I could not care any less about Steve’s stupid fight over his house with his stupid neighbors.
So, if I purchased Mount Vernon or Monticello or San Simeon it would be perfectly okay for me to tear ’em down because they were mine right?
Invasion of privacy,
The last two words of MDN’s Take apply directly to you. Seek help immediately.
@Tommy Boy
That’s exactly what the editors of this site believe in. Hell, they’d buy Arlington National Cemetery and turn it into a golf course if it was up to them.
I hope they flatten that thing by this weekend!!!
@Tommy Boy
I’m not sure why anyone would do both of the hypothetical acts you suggest, but the answer remains, “Yes.”
If a property owner can’t do what he wants with his property, he’s really not an “owner” at all.
@Invasion of Privacy: “As an AAPL shareholder, I demand to know what’s going on with the company and what they are doing about building market share for the Mac into at least double digits, but I could not care any less about Steve’s stupid fight over his house with his stupid neighbors.”
As a major shareholder since 2001 I couldn’t care less about market share. You can’t sell quality products at bargain basement prices, and you can’t make a profit catering to the cheapest customers in the market. Apple is doing just fine.
It seems that there is this fundamental difference in attitude towards history, historical monuments, objects, etc., between America and, say, Europe. As a fairly new nation, America’s oldest structures are barely four centuries old, and most ‘historic’ buildings are less than 200 years old. Compare that to so many buildings throughout the European continent, built five, eight, even twelve centuries ago, many of them still in use today (churches, monasteries). There is this very strong respect in Europe for historic artifacts in general, while (again, in general), America tends to march forward without that much regard for history, whether its own, or anyone else’s.
@Invasion of Privacy
This is a blog, they pass along any stories remotely related to Apple and also inject opinion for their readers to be entertained and a lot of times informed.
The dry cut news you are seeking can be found on Apple’s page at google finance. If this is your main news site for your shareholding decisions, you are seriously misguided.
The house was never worth saving.
It was a dump.
It was never that special to begin with and never worth trying to preserve.
Shame it cost the owner 9 years of his life.
Demolishing Android will take even longer.
I was on the typical side of “What? The greatest CEO in the world can’t demolish his own house?”
Until I researched who George Washington Smith was, his charming architecture style and the absurd sums of money people will pay for restored houses built by this architect.
I also found out that despite being a owner of a house, if it’s considered “historic” you come under the community guidelines for it’s preservation.
There are many “historic districts” in the U.S., Newport R.I., Key West, Fl.. Mystic CN., to name a few.
In these areas if you purchase a house, you come under community guidance concerning how and what you can do to your home. Just like if you buy a condo or a house in a housing association you come under rules.
Also if you buy a house or want to build a house anywhere, you come under Building Code and Civil Planning Zoning laws respective for your area. This is so you don’t build a gas station next to a school, or a 10 story building made out of matchsticks.
We all know what Steve Jobs will place on top of that hill, a giant glass cube monstrosity with a Apple logo on it shining over the whole valley.
So since he has no desire, despite his billions, to restore such a potentially wonderful historic home to it’s former glory for future generations to enjoy, then he should leave it to someone who will.
Even if he started building now, he would likely not live too much longer to enjoy what ever he built anyway.
Steve can build whatever he wants, nearly anywhere else he wants, it’s wrong to destroy history in the process.
It’s a wonderful thing to visit historic areas and see all the different wonderful architecture and design. It’s a relief from the mass produced housing and strip malls we see everywhere else.
Steve Jobs is going to leave that house to someone who will restore it, he’s not going down in history as a butcher of historic homes. Trust me.
Isn’t there like an endangered termite species living in that house? …
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Mr. Jobs, if I were you I’d bulldoze the dump tomorrow. Never know what these a-holes with no money in the pot will try next.
anonymous coward. So you buy the thing anonymously and save it for the old farts to look at. Or are you a coward?
@invasion of Privacy
It wasn’t clear, are you saying that MDN should only post news that as a stock holder you feel is important?
Really? I’m not sure if you understand how this all works, but there are a lot of sites out there dedicated to the business side of things. Many are apps for iPad and iPhone. ( I threw that in to keep your interest as an Apple stock holder, you know they do more than make computers now right?)
MDN usually is right on with what they choose to post, even if I disagree with them at times on their take, but hey its America.
And if I own property then I should be able to do with it as I like. Providing I don’t use it to store toxic chemicals etc without the correct permits.
It’s a testament to Mr. Jobs that an unfortunate “lighting strike” didn’t happen to that house about 8 years ago.
Not sure I would have had the unbelievable patience that Mr. Jobs has displayed.
Send the ‘dozers in ASAP, Mr. Jobs, before the nut jobs get any more bright ideas.
Ever think that the house that Steve builds will be more historic than the current one?
It’s not like he is going to replace it with a vinyl-wrapped McMansion with fake brick work and a giant Rainbow Play System in the back yard.
Jesus.
Europeans laugh at our idea of ‘historic’. A hunded year old house is barely broken in.
To the Steve Jobs haters:
do you people realize the big fat fact that Steve Jobs house known as the Jacklin house was NOT on any historical registry when he bought it? Yeah, no one thought it worth squat until Steve Jobs bought it.
when he bought it in the 1980s he had the understanding he could replace it.
Then when the ‘preservationists’ and wackos found it that STEVE JOBS bought it they went crazy as it would give them PUBLICITY in their preservation activities (raise money for their organizations, get press coverage etc). Like Greenpeace always beating up on Apple and not Dell — to get publicity. Some groups drove across the country from florida to protest and get some press coverage. They’ve been obstructing legal proceedings for years (again this house was NOT on any historical registry).
If it wasn’t Steve’s house, no one could give a rats azz if it was demolished. Steve even offered to give it away FREE (you just had to move it) and NO ONE wanted it!! Tommy Boy you mentioned Mount Vernon, do you think no one would want Mount Vernon house for free?
Also I would like to add, despite the house looking rather mismatched and neglected, with the right changes to it’s structure and restoration by a highly talented individual (some who have already restored such GWS houses in the past) and enough funding, it would be a wonderful estate.
Sometimes it’s hard to get creatively motivated when your staring at a huge ugly building, failing to see the diamond underneath.