Plans to turn a house where rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix once lived into a youth center are again on shaky ground.
Members of the foundation that owns the house and has moved it once already are worried the city of Seattle will demolish it if they can’t find another place to move the dilapidated piece of rock history.
The home owned by Hendrix’s father from 1953 until 1956 — when Jimi Hendrix was 12 to 15 — was moved a few blocks from its original address three years ago to make way for a housing development.
The city offered a vacant lot, giving supporters a chance to find a permanent location or buy the land and fix up the house. Now the house is falling apart, and the city says the foundation never made a proposal to buy the property.
City officials want to end the month-to-month lease and take back the land. The foundation has been given until Feb. 22 to move the house.
“There are other potential opportunities associated with the site; we need to extinguish the lease,” said John Franklin, director of operations for the mayor’s office.
“Seattle should be involved in building this community center and this tribute to Jimi,” said Ray Rae Goldman, research director for the James Marshall Hendrix Foundation. “When we made the original agreement, it was inferred that the city was going to help us out a little more than they did.”
Hendrix died in 1970, when he was 27.