Boston’s Skinny House at 44 Hull Street in the North End is on sale for $895,000 through Cabot & Company.

The 1,116-square-foot pile is 10.4 feet at its widest on the outside and just over 6 feet at its narrowest on the inside. It had been rented out for short spells, but now the owner apparently wants to unload the slender conversation topic.

Why so slim? Legend has it that one of two brothers built it shortly after returning from Army service in the Civil War. Turned out the other brother had already built big on a plot of land the siblings had inherited.

So the returning veteran threw up 44 Hull on the plot's remaining sliver of space just to block the natural light, views, etc., of his brother’s bigger house. Hence 44 Hull’s other nickname, the Spite House.

Records of the dwelling appear starting in the 1870s, so there is something to the legend.