JIMI HENDRIX's Childhood Home Gets A Reprieve

Mike Lewis of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter has issued the following report:

The small house where late guitar great Jimi Hendrix lived as a child will remain standing at least for a little while longer, a King County Superior Court judge ruled in a brief hearing yesterday.

The decision simply means that the city of Seattle can't tear it down immediately — giving its owners more time before the next two scheduled courtroom sessions to determine the decrepit structure's future.

"The city sought to demolish the house today at 5 p.m.," said Pete Sikov, owner of the vacant home. "They can't do that. We won."

For now, anyway. Barring any successful legal challenges, the city's Aug. 4 teardown deadline still stands if the house remains on city property — the issue at the heart of the fight.

"It seems to be their mission to demolish it," Sikov groused after the hearing.

Replied Seattle Facilities Department spokeswoman Kathy Sugiyama: "They have not fulfilled their commitments. We've bent over backwards to give (Sikov) time to do this."

The house currently sits on a city-owned lot at 2010 S. Jackson St. It had been moved there four years ago when the city approved a redevelopment on the house's old site. In exchange for clearing the property, the city granted Sikov the right to store the home on a city lot.

Both sides agree that much is true.

What has happened since remains in dispute.

Sikov said the city has reneged on promises related to the home's storage on Jackson Street and miscellaneous permits, as well as a promised sale of the storage lot that would allow him to restore the house into a suitable memorial for the Seattle native and rock 'n' roll and blues legend who died at 27 in 1970.

City officials assert in a 13-point itemized list that Sikov has broken repeated promises to move the house and purchase the lot. They say he's blown nearly every new deadline he's been granted.

Read the rest of the article at Seattlepi.nwsource.com.