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Whatever happened to Steve Jobs’ teardown mansion?

Monday, March 12, 2012 · 2:20 pm · 32 Comments

“Remember the Jackling House, the 14-bedroom Roaring Twenties-era folly that Apple’s Steve Jobs bought, hated, and planned — despite the objections of preservationists — to replace with a modern home more to his exacting standards?” Philip Elmer-DeWitt asks for Fortune.

“Well, it got torn down in February 2011, while Jobs was dying and had more important things to do than build a new house,” P.E.D. reports. “It’s not clear what Laurene Powell, Jobs’ widow, plans to do with the property.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: We hope Laurene Powell Jobs follows through with Steve’s oft-delayed vision for home on the property.

We also hope that the insufferable busybodies who failed to preserve jack shit, but did deny a dying man his wish, hate it and that it stands for at least a thousand years.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]

Categories: News

Tags: California, insufferable busybodies, Jackling Dump, Jackling House, Laurene Powell Jobs, preservationists, steve jobs, woodside

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Comment Feed

32 Comments

TheMacAdvocate

Monday, March 12, 2012 - 2:31 pm · Reply

MDN take wins the Internet.
krquet

Monday, March 12, 2012 - 3:02 pm · Reply

Not P.E.D’s best work. There are other things to report/obsess about than this. This is no longer an Apple concern. This is not so much about SJ as it is about his family. Better to leave these kind of “idle” hit seeking pieces to the Register and the Sun etc. Just my opinion, but I found this to be a bit creepy, particularly calling around the neighbourhood realtors etc.
Pamela's Blog

Monday, March 12, 2012 - 3:12 pm · Reply

If developers had their way, Grand Central Station would be gone and a glass tower with Trumps name on it would be in its place. Instead, we still have an amazing structure with the worlds best Apple store. Preservation has its place
- Nerd Beautiful
  
  Monday, March 12, 2012 - 3:30 pm · Reply
  
  Wow, thanks for the news flash pamela. Gee really?
  - Pamela's Blog
    
    Monday, March 12, 2012 - 3:33 pm · Reply
    
    Gee, you’re welcome
    - TowerTone
      
      Monday, March 12, 2012 - 3:53 pm · Reply
      
      What about the developers that built Grand Central Terminal?
      First they had to tear down the previous version, which was built on a previous version….
      
      The question here is not about preservation (which obviously is a good thing…sometimes) but rather about the use of common sense in the application of preserving.
      - Buster
        
        Monday, March 12, 2012 - 6:00 pm · Reply
        
        Unfortunately, common sense is not all that common.
        
        botvinnik
        
        Monday, March 12, 2012 - 6:33 pm · Reply
        
        Thank you, Buster Voltaire.
        
        qka
        
        Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - 2:19 pm · Reply
        
        Actually, he is quoting Will Rogers.
        
        Look him up. Even on Wikipedia. A wise man, he was.
      - NYer
        
        Monday, March 12, 2012 - 8:44 pm · Reply
        
        Or…the land was basically vacant when GCT was built. As was its train yard (what we now recognize as 45th thru 55th and park ave.
- 3l3c7ro
  
  Monday, March 12, 2012 - 3:43 pm · Reply
  
  The wisdom to know what to preserve and what to change is the key question. Just because something has bee around for a long time does not mean that it is worthy of being kept. Conservatives and conservationist both have a similar focus but the former is a much stronger force to hold back the progress of the world.
  
  There was no wisdom in keeping that ‘mansion’ around and it is sad that the conservation busy bodies ultimately won by stopping Steve’s other dream.
- GM
  
  Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - 4:29 am · Reply
  
  Geez Pam, I’d call a new Apple store a “developed” property. It certainly doesn’t look like anything that the original architect designed. Doesn’t bother me but you smack of a bit of an elitist. Urbanist wannabe maybe? You should move to L.A. so you can run with the real urbanists. Failed architect ?
iRoss

Monday, March 12, 2012 - 3:18 pm · Reply

In gratitude to Steve Jobs put up a modern digital house !!!
anonymous

Monday, March 12, 2012 - 3:21 pm · Reply

For anyone interested in reflecting on the significance of the Jackling mansion and the irony in Steve Jobs tearing it down, should see the beginning of Timothy LeCain’s 2009 book Mass Destruction: The Men and Giant Mines that Wired America and Scarred the Planet. Jackling was a brilliant engineer who reinvented the copper industry and, in turn, made possible the modern electronics industry.

Mass Destruction the Men and giant Mines That Wired America and Scarred the Planet
- Thelonious Mac
  
  Monday, March 12, 2012 - 3:32 pm · Reply
  
  Yeah. We should be living in the dark and eating dirt. I wholeheartedly agree.
- TheMacAdvocate
  
  Monday, March 12, 2012 - 3:34 pm · Reply
  
  So you’re saying Jackling would approve of demolishing something that would have facilitated future technological innovations. Agree!
- SixnaHalfFeet
  
  Monday, March 12, 2012 - 4:21 pm · Reply
  
  Don’t you find it ironic that you are advocating preserving a house of a guy who was against preserving the copper industry as it previously stood? He tore down the existing industry and made something better.
  
  I am not saying that nothing should be preserved, but let’s at least pick the items that are for the public good. I don’t think that the public would benefit anything from the preservation of the Jackling mansion.
Thelonious Mac

Monday, March 12, 2012 - 3:23 pm · Reply

MDN spot on again, as usual.

Every piece of crap building that manages to last a century isn’t necessarily a treasure. More often than not they are eyesores, and taking up space better used by a modern building, or parking lot.
- cwfrederick
  
  Monday, March 12, 2012 - 9:06 pm · Reply
  
  second best post next to MDN’s
MJMJ

Monday, March 12, 2012 - 3:29 pm · Reply

Have to disagree, MDN. I hope they love it and it tears at their heart.
iMaki

Monday, March 12, 2012 - 3:32 pm · Reply

Long live Stevo! A thousand years is not enough of a man who was so great and let so few dreams remain unfulfilled!
darknite

Monday, March 12, 2012 - 3:45 pm · Reply

Check this out, photos of the Mansion before it was torn down

http://io9.com/5890290/take-a-virtual-tour-of-steve-jobs-crumbling-former-mansion
MacRaven

Monday, March 12, 2012 - 4:15 pm · Reply

Just the other day I was wondering what became of all that.
HughB

Monday, March 12, 2012 - 4:22 pm · Reply

This is a strange subject to debate here. I have the feeling that neither MDN nor any of the posters here have even seen the Jackling Mansion. I would bet that none of you has a clue about what it was. Further you probably could not locate it on a map, let alone drive to it. But you all know full well that it was a piece of crap just because Steve wanted it destroyed. The folks who lived near it tried to stop Jobs because they did know about the place. I did not think it was an architectural masterpiece, but it was historical. Steve was a hero, but he was a selfish arrogant man who parked in handicapped spaces, insulted waiters and treated many people and things as beneath him. This mansion was just one of his many targets. Just sayin’
- krquet
  
  Monday, March 12, 2012 - 4:48 pm · Reply
  
  “Just sayin’” what? Adding more garbage to the vast echo-chamber of misinformation? Have you ever stopped to think, for instance, that since his cancer diagnosis and till his death, how many treatments and procedures Mr. Jobs had to undergo? Matter of fact, he even had to relearn how to walk on various occasions. He was ill (terminally so) and was disabled for months in a row. He just didn’t care to showcase that on stage for cheap sympathy points.
  
  Also, him parking in the disabled zone has only one source, who couldn’t verify for fact that it was indeed Steve’s car. He only guessed because it was an unlicensed Mercedes. We can all guess, but that won’t make it a fact. Like I said, don’t add more garbage to the interweb-garbage-echo-chamber.
  
  How about that waiter story of yours? Were you there, any facts to back that up? Would you like an alternate link where he was being very kind to several waiters? I honestly can provide a few links on those. Who would you believe?
  
  Please, gather some wits and clues, form some informed opinions, before throwing darts at someone’s reputation who is beyond defending himself. Just a friendly suggestion.
  - HughB
    
    Monday, March 12, 2012 - 5:03 pm · Reply
    
    Steve was a jerk long before he had cancer. I personally know a number of Apple employees here in Cupertino. I also know several waitresses who had occasion to try to serve Jobs. Every shop and cafe employees on University Ave in Palo Alto knows of how demanding Jobs was. And as far as parking in handicapped zone he did that daily at Apple headquarters. His unlicensed Mercedes convertibles were routinely parked in not one, but two handicapped spaces. Every Apple employee at One Infinity Loop knows that. Where did you get you information?
    - krquet
      
      Monday, March 12, 2012 - 5:42 pm · Reply
      
      You see a jerk, I see a visionary without social dance skills and patience for mediocrity.
      
      I believe, I first read the Mercedes being parked at the handicapped zone in the book Apple Confidential 2.0. Both revisions of the book are highly suspect of being jealous/biased against Steve. Strong and unsubstantiated opinions galore, certainly seems to have left a mark on the impressionable Mr. Walter Isaacson.
      
      Isaacson’s portrayal of Steve picks up only pieces of him highlighting the negatives without much context (or any defense from the subject). I tend to rely more from the horse’s mouth and here’s one for you:
      
      ‘Former Google head chef recalls ‘humble,’ fashionably late Steve Jobs’
      
      http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/11/15/former_google_head_chef_recalls_humble_fashionably_late_steve_jobs.html
    - Buster
      
      Monday, March 12, 2012 - 6:06 pm · Reply
      
      Allegations aside, why would someone who is the top guy need to park in such a space. He could make his ‘spot’ anywhere the hell he would want to park. Steve was a personality, probably a jerk at times especially when he was young, but doing the handicapped thing is evil and, jerkiness aside, I do not think he was evil.
- quiviran
  
  Monday, March 12, 2012 - 5:10 pm · Reply
  
  The preservation effort was led in part by some previous owners of the property. If they loved it so much, why didn’t they just keep it? We either have private ownership of property or we have common ownership. It was Jobs’ to do with as he pleased. It was not sold to him as a historical preserve and he did not agree to that condition when he bought it.
  
  PS, don’t wimp out with “just saying”. You either have a position or you don’t. Grow a pair.
Dave H

Monday, March 12, 2012 - 6:06 pm · Reply

I hope that the Jobs family go through with the vision for the new home, but part of me wonders whether they will stay in Cupertino now Steve is no longer with them. Without a role at Apple keeping them anchored there there’s nothing really to stop them heading on wherever they wish, and that project might be a bit too painful to think about now Steve has gone.
Apple

Monday, March 12, 2012 - 8:17 pm · Reply

Why tear it down? It will make a good set for the next Salem Lot movie….
Harry Tuttle

Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - 1:06 am · Reply

I side with Steve Jobs and his estate. Since he was the owner of the property including the house, he could have done anything he wanted as long as did not endanger or disturb his neighbors. Something about concept of property rights though in this state (Democratic People’s Republic of California) does its darnest to circumvent that. On the other hand, I can see why these historical preservationists may want the home preserved but unless they buy the land with home in it or just buy the home and pay to move somewhere else, tough too bad so sad if the wrecking ball is on its way.