Capitol Hill has a lot going for it over the mansions of Medina.

In a June interview with Time Magazine about the philanthropist’s life after divorcing the world’s fifth-richest person, Melinda French Gates sounds quite a bit like the rest of us when it comes to describing what she loves about her new life in the city:

“I live in a neighborhood. Now I can walk to little stores. I can walk to the drugstore, I can walk to a restaurant,” she says. “I absolutely love it.”

Where is this lovely slice of city living? Capitol Hill. Business Insider reports that French Gates purchased “a cottage in the North Broadway neighborhood of Seattle weeks before the former couple filed for divorce in 2021” for $1.2 million.

Time reports French Gates said in the search for a smaller home — four-bedroom, two-bath, she was never “a fan of the massive one her husband had built” — it wasn’t possible for her to house hunt in person so she did a lot of searching on Redfin.

In addition to a family friend or two in the area, Bill and Melinda frequented Capitol Hill in the earlier days of their marriage with reported sightings at Dick’s Drive-in, the Harvard Exit, and Joe Bar over the years.

Now, French Gates has made it her home. Meanwhile, you might also see her out enjoying the neighborhood nightlife. Time reports she is letting her friends throw her a dance party to celebrate her 60th birthday in August.

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