Time's Up For JIMI HENDRIX's Boyhood Home

June 8, 2005

The Associated Press has issued the following report:

The owner of a run-down home where Jimi Hendrix once lived plans to move it to suburban Renton, across from the cemetery where the rock legend is buried. Owner Pete Sikov has until Friday to provide completed plans for moving the house; otherwise, Seattle officials say they will demolish it.

The house was moved a few blocks three years ago to make way for a housing development. Its current location in the Central District, a vacant lot on South Jackson Street, was provided by the city to give the building's supporters time to find a new location for it or to buy the lot and fix up the home there.

The James Marshall Hendrix Foundation wants to turn the home into a music-oriented youth center. Hendrix's father, Al Hendrix, owned it from 1953 to 1956.

The city has given repeated warnings and deadlines to Sikov, who was originally supposed to move the house in February.

"It has become a kind of contest between me and the mayor's office to see if we can move it before they can demolish it," Sikov said.

Sikov said he was prepared to move the house last Friday to a lot he owns across the street from Garfield High School, but the city denied him a permit and rezoning request. Officials were concerned the building would be a nuisance there, he said.

John Franklin, director of departmental operations for the mayor's office, said the city doesn't have other plans for the property at the moment.

"I think this is the last deadline," said Franklin. "This extra time was provided because of some information they gave that led us to believe there might be a solution. They have to make it happen. We can't do it for them."

Sikov thinks the house would survive the move to Renton, across from Greenwood Memorial Park. The house is on steel beams, ready to move.

"The question for the citizens of Seattle is whether they want the house to stay in Seattle in the neighborhood where Jimi grew up, or if they want it to move to Renton, his resting place," Sikov said. "I just want to make sure Jimi's house isn't demolished."

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