The Spite House

The Spite House (a structure built intentionally to annoy other residents) was built in 1961. This five-tiered cake-type building is known not only for its unusual architecture but also for the story behind it. Jan Pol, the owner and builder, had taken in a foster daughter who became pregnant. Social services took the infant and its mother away against the protests of owner Pol and his wife. The “cake house” was built to house the infant, its mother, and Jan Pol and his wife, but this never happened so it became a “monument to injustice.”