What ever happened to the Ross house at 1st and Madison?

I've always wondered what happened to the plot of land that John Ross and family owned at 1st and Madison. This is the house where they lived before they moved out to the donation claim on salmon bay in the early 1870s. It must have become quite valuable as Seattle grew up around it. I re-read Aunt Ida's memoirs and I think I have the answer, though will have to do a little more research to find out more details.

The last few years of my father's life he became quite an invalid and felt he would be better off in town and went to live with Elmer and his wife in our old home. That was when Elmer persuaded him in his weakened condition to give him the old home which Elmer sold soon after Father died for 35 thousand, keeping it all for himself though Mother was left with an 8-month old baby. I never once heard my mother criticize him or seem to hold any hard feelings toward him for doing so.

Holy Moly! John Ross moved to town to live in his old house in what by then had become downtown Seattle, a thriving small town.  And his son, Elmer, who was living there, convinced John Ross to sign the house over to him! Yikes! So I looked up how much $35,000 is worth in today's dollars.....almost $1 million dollars!  Elmer Ross cheated his mother and family out of a fortune! This makes me incredibly sad for some reason. As my mom says, we'd like to believe that our ancestors were good, honest people who cared about their families.....apparently not, in this case.  The really sad thing is that Mary Jane was later talked out of her large land holdings on the ship canal in Ballard by Burke and Gilman (oh yes, that Burke and Gilman) so apparently neither Mary Jane nor John Ross were terribly savvy about land values....

I have one other detail that I need to research. I found a divorce document for John Ross and Mary Jane from 1889 -- the year that John Ross died.  Could Elmer really have been such a scoundrel as to have John Ross divorce Mary Jane so that he could more easily take the house?

And one other thing -- I will have to write a future post about divorce. Because for an era where divorce was rare, I keep coming across divorces in both the Humphrey and Ross families! (But especially the Humphreys!)