\n At some point, he says, he came across the Westboro Baptist Church<\/a> (WBC).\n <\/p>\n \n The Church, which is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center<\/a>, is best known for organizing pickets at soldiers\u2019 funerals and emblazoning anti-LGBT slogans on protest signs and billboards.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe first thing I saw was that (the church) was in a neighborhood. I was walking around and I decided to do a 360 view and I saw a \u2018for sale\u2019 sign in front of the house on Google Earth. I thought it would be really funny to buy that house.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Although that specific house in Topeka, Kansas, was no longer for sale when Jackson inquired, another one on the street was. Jackson bought it sight unseen. Despite never having been there, he was ready for a change, so he moved to his new digs in Topeka, the state capital.\n <\/p>\n \n But becoming the WBC\u2019s neighbor was only the first step in his plan.\n <\/p>\n \n Next, he painted the house\u2019s exterior in rainbow stripes to make it look like a Pride flag. The act was intentional, agitprop for the social media age. It was a response to the the church\u2019s anti-gay rhetoric, and it was right in front of their living room windows, impossible to ignore.\n <\/p>\n \n He named it the Equality House.\n <\/p>\n \n Photos of the home went viral, but Jackson thought people would see a picture, have a laugh, and then move on.\n <\/p>\n \n Instead, they showed up to visit.\n <\/p>\n \n Although Topeka has a population of about 125,000 people, its location along I-70, a major highway that cuts east-west across the US, makes it a convenient stop along road trips. The Westboro Baptist Church, and the Equality House, are just off the highway.\n <\/p>\n \n A few years later, Jackson bought a second home on the street and painted it in pink, white and blue stripes to resemble the trans pride flag<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Jackson doesn\u2019t call the Equality House a \u201cspite\u201d house, but he knows that a lot of people disagree. The house is part of a wider nonprofit he\u2019s established called Planting Peace,<\/a> which has launched other initiatives including orphanages and elephant rescue efforts.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe Equality House is a symbol of compassion, peace, and positive change,\u201d the organization\u2019s website says. But its location, facing the infamous church, makes a case for its \u201cspite\u201d house label.\n <\/p>\n \n Spite architecture has a short but vivid history, most of it American.\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s sometimes mistakenly linked to \u201cnail\u201d houses, where owners refuse to sell to developers, leaving a single structure marooned amid new constructions. Sometimes owners are holding out for a bigger payday. Others stay put out of stubbornness \u2014 think of the little house at the beginning of the movie \u201cUp.\u201d<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n But spite houses are different. They\u2019re built not to resist developers but, as their name suggests, they\u2019re intentionally designed, with a degree of malice, to annoy someone specific.\n <\/p>\n \n Boston\u2019s \u201cSkinny House<\/a>\u201d may be the most famous example.\n <\/p>\n \n Ten feet wide and four stories tall, it rises from the city\u2019s historic North End. According to a real estate agent who once sold it, two brothers owned the plot. One built a grand home for himself while the other was away fighting in the Civil War. When the soldier returned, furious that his brother had left him a smaller portion of the plot, he built a narrow tower to block the mansion\u2019s view and sunlight.\n <\/p>\n \n Today, a plaque outside the diminutive 44 Hull Street property reads \u201cSkinny House,\u201d with \u201cSpite House\u201d in parentheses. Although it\u2019s still a private residence, it has become a tourist attraction in the tony Boston neighborhood, which also contains the Old North Church, the city\u2019s oldest, and a statue of Paul Revere.\n <\/p>\n \n On Google Maps, it\u2019s labeled \u201cBoston spite house.\u201d Instagram is full of photos of tourists visiting the house, with \u201cstretching my arms out between this house and the one next door\u201d by far the most popular pose.\n <\/p>\n![\"Number](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ap21225804143688.jpg\")
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