Now decorated as a Macy's shopping bag, the building received its name from the fact that it sold for a million dollars in 1911, an unprecedented sum at the time.

While Rockefeller was successful in purchasing the townhouse at 1240 Sixth Avenue, the lessees—Daniel Hurley and Patrick Daly, owners of a speakeasy on 49th Street, who had signed a long-term lease—refused to vacate unless they were bought out to their asking sum of $250 million (equivalent to $5 billion in 2025).

Due to Western Union's unwillingness to relocate as the rerouting of communication equipment was financially infeasible, developer Hines Interests negotiated with the occupants of the Western Union building for a complete envelopment of the building in a vault within 700 Louisiana Street's modern facade, allowing the facility to resume operation on the site inside the skyscraper's 12-story adjacent bank-lobby structure.

[8] After several failures of negotiation with Ms. Macefield, builders opted to continue with construction, surrounding 3 sides of her property with 5 story concrete walls.

[9] However, contrary to popular belief, she was not against development around her property; her reason for holding out was simply that she found the process of moving uncomfortable at her increasingly debilitating age.

The United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the Republic of Ireland have a comparable process called compulsory purchase, and there are equivalent laws in Australia and South Africa.

The decision was widely unpopular, and spurred various states to enact laws prohibiting the practice, restricting eminent domain seizures to public works projects.

More recent examples include Edith Macefield, who refused to sell her Seattle house to a developer, and Randal Acker who challenged the power of eminent domain in Portland, Oregon.

The central government officially owned all real estate, and could in theory dictate who was entitled to control any piece of property according to national interests.

Developers would typically offer relatively low compensation to the residents, reflecting the pre-development value of their properties or the cost of obtaining alternative housing elsewhere.

[17][19] More recently, in 2007 the PRC has begun to accept private ownership of real estate, including the still-controversial notion that owners are free to earn money when their land becomes more valuable due to planned developments, or even simply not to sell.

The law strengthened the position of nail house owners, but did not entirely resolve whether making room for private commercial developments was a public interest that entitled the taking of land.

Yang Wu, a local martial arts champion, used nunchakus to make a staircase to their house, and threatened to beat any authorities who attempted to evict him.

[17] His wife, a restaurateur named Wu Ping who had planned to open a restaurant in the home's ground floor, granted interviews and frequent press releases to generate publicity.

[19][28][29] Another blogger, vegetable vendor Zhou Shuguang, traveled by train from his home in Hunan province to cover the incident, funded by donations from his readers.