A railroad job introduced Jesse Evans to Seattle greater than 50 years in the past. In some methods, he by no means left.
Jesse Evans, a semiretired 73-year-old contractor, can see the House Needle from his entrance porch in Macon, Georgia.
Although he grew up in Macon, Evans’s coronary heart lies in Seattle. He constructed a 16-foot duplicate of the House Needle in his yard as an ode to his late spouse, but additionally as an ode to the town he nonetheless loves.
In 1970, a summer time railroad job introduced him by means of Seattle. Enchanted, on his subsequent journey by means of he stopped in on the College of Washington and utilized to switch from Atlanta’s Morehouse School.
When the oldsters on the House Needle came upon about Evans’s undertaking, they made certain he obtained cans of genuine paint.
When he came upon he’d gotten into UW, “I used to be on cloud 9,” Evans says.
He attended UW and developed a lifelong love for the Huskies soccer workforce. Then, within the early Eighties, he discovered romantic love at an Eastlake membership.
“Her identify was Theresa Laverne Lee,” Evans says. “She was a mannequin for Anheuser-
Busch—I didn’t know that on the time, however I suspected one thing.” Theresa walked as much as Evans’s desk, “and I stated, ‘Wow,’” Evans says, drawing out the phrase. “I requested if I may purchase her a drink.”
The 2 married and lived collectively in Seattle for a decade till an ailing member of the family introduced them again to Macon, the place they lived fortunately. Then, on New 12 months’s Day in 2000, Theresa died from a cerebral hemorrhage at age 44.
Ever the builder, Evans constructed a fence round Theresa’s gravesite and his future gravesite. However the fence couldn’t keep. “Folks on the graveyard advised me I needed to decide it up,” he says.
Evans constructed the mannequin as a tribute to his late spouse Theresa.
Sitting on his porch afterward, Evans stared on the mercury-vapor lamp of the streetlight. It reminded him of the House Needle. “I stated, ‘That’s what I’ll do, I’ll construct a mannequin of the Seattle House Needle, and I dare anybody to inform me to maneuver that,” Evans says.
Over three years, Evans drew up the plans, accrued supplies, and erected the 16-foot aluminum duplicate in his spare time. The actual House Needle even gave him official permission to construct the construction. Whereas discussing that, the supervisor requested Evans, “Properly, what colour are you going to color it?”
The Macon House Needle hasn’t moved from its spot in Evans’s yard besides as soon as—when he introduced it to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a UW soccer sport.
He linked Evans with the paint firm for the precise monument. In a matter of weeks, a FedEx truck carrying a quart every of House Needle White, Gold, Halo, and Bronze paint arrived in Macon, freed from cost.
The House Needle has stood tall in entrance of Evans’s home ever since, and hasn’t moved apart from the one time Evans transported it to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a UW vs. Michigan soccer sport.
“I’m an alumni,” Evans says proudly. “It’s my life.”
