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Old photo--steam traction engines moving building

F

farmerjohn

Well-known Member
Sorry, not the greatest photo. This was taken Nov. 11, 1925 in Pine Flats PA, a school house was moved 300 feet down the street and later converted into a store/residence. It was still there until last year when it caught fire and burned down.

I have often been curious, I have heard a lot of old time stories of buildings being moved, is it maybe back then it was cheaper to reuse existing buildings than build new?
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It was once not uncommon to move buildings and there were businesses that specialized in doing it.

When small (late 1950s) I saw a house moved about two miles. The last time that I saw one moved was in the early to mid 1980s.

Dean
 
My dad was a carpenter. Worked for Weyerhauser building a lab building back in the early '60's- the property had a house on it, and they used it for the super's office, lunch room, restroom, etc. during construction. When the new building was done, they gathered everyone around on the last day and said "We've got to either sell this house, or tear it down- will anyone give a dollar?" Dad raised his hand, and it was his. He measured off 5 acres in a rocky corner of our farm, and our summer project that year was to install the house. We built a foundation to move it on to, and then hired a house mover to move it the 20 miles. I remember riding on top of the house with a forked stick, to hold power and phone lines up to get under. Can you imagine letting a 16 year old do that these days? We rented a backhoe to put in a septic tank, and do other dirt stuff. Dad sold the house and 5 acres for $17,000- pretty good money in those days.

Moving houses used to be pretty common- but not so much any more.
 
Back then buildings were way over built. Before drywall, they used T&G planks on the inside, sometimes ran diagonally! And the wood was from original growth forests, very hard wood, not like the new fast growing trees. They were heavy, but moved well.

The down fall though, was they didn't usually have good foundations. Most were pier and beam, or just stacked rocks. They would settle and sink. Most had wood skirting that went down to the dirt, here come the termites!
 
I've seen a big square house moved down main street in a small town in about 1960. Seen another moved a few blocks and turned into a restaurant in about 1970. Small country church moved 6 or 8 miles up and down hills and across a mile or so of pasture to it's destination as a wedding chapel now, my son got married there last year. The west side of this house was rolled on poles pulled by horses from another farm and attached to this house, 2 story. The roof line looks good but the floors lean a little into the sunset. There's a news paper article around here somewhere about this but I can't remember the details.
 
Dean, there are still a few movers around, but not as common as it once was. I watched a highway construction a few years ago, it involved moving a lot of high end houses. Don't know how they did it, but they moved brick veneer houses intact!
 
The rural grade school that I went to was built with 2X6 walls. After the school district was dissolved the building was moved to town and converted into a restaurant. The owner passed away and it sits empty now.

The old wooden church that we went to had been a rural church at one time. It was moved about 6 miles to town in the 1920's; the building was pulled by several teams of mules.

Dad moved a big barn about a mile across the section in 1947, that we converted into a granary. The building was pulled by 3 old JD "D" tractors on steel over frozen ground.
 
I knew some house movers quite well here, they quit because insurance rates were so high, it was not cost effective. There are plenty of pictures on the attached web site of the moving of the Potsdam NY train station, all sandstone. I was in college here at the time and the station was to be demolished to make way for a new bypass highway through town. However, it was a great college town bar and petitions were passed around to save the building that every student signed, so they ended up moving it just far enough for the new roadway.
Potsdam NY train station move 1980
 
when local dam went in here in late 30's intire town of walhonding was moved to higher ground, can still see the old foundations below town
 

In my town there is a road that runs straight as can be for a little over a mile, and then there is a house right in front of you, and you go around the house then down a very steep hill. It was being moved back in the 1800s, when they got to the top of the hill they couldn't come up with a plan to lower it down, so they started living in it and people drove around it and have ever since.
 
In mid 60's I worked for Bell Telephone Co. in Lansing Michigan. I worked a couple house moves, some more than a mile down a street. We had to drop all phone lines and put them back as soon as house passed. Seldom worked as fast and furious in my life humping up poles and down. All for a paycheck of about $75/ week!
 
back in 1998 we bought a house that had to be moved so a cheese factory could expand. We moved the house, then they shut the doors on the plant. We ended up with a ( now ) nice big house with new basement, well and septic. It was a lot of work and would not do it again. Now I am interested in buying the old cheese plant building. I told the wife we are going to move the house back where it came from.
 
Friend I used to work with at Clemson used to move houses in Oklahoma with his dad. Said a lady wanted one moved and she wanted the poured cellar moved also.
They moved the house and came back and dug down and ran beams under the floor of the cellar and jacked it up and moved it.
Hard to believe.
Richard in NW SC
 
I have often been curious, I have heard a lot of old time stories of buildings being moved, is it maybe back then it was cheaper to reuse existing buildings than build new?

We moved a 35x50 barn, about 200 feet south, this past summer to get it away from the house. Was originally going to lift it and put a foundation under it but the contractor said he could move it for 2500 more. Used his track hoe and my old Massey backhoe. IH 674 was a bit light for the job. Will have about 35000 into it by the time all the siding, landscaping and a new lean-to is built on the south side. Nothing like the old barns though..... At least that's what I keep telling myself......
 
Last summer the local Habitat For Humanity moved a donated house to their building site. The house was a split entry less than ten years old that a developer needed to move or demolish. They moved the top story and built a new basement under it. The finished house has five bedrooms, two baths and an attached three car garage. The project was less expensive and much larger than any house they built from scratch. I think the developer or the house mover donated the move.

A local house mover has an parking lot with eight to ten used houses ready to move to building sites. Flat country and good roads make house moving easier.

A friend moved a house over hilly ground in late fall. The house flexed and twisted enough that some of the drywall needed to be repaired. Temperatures were cool enough that the asphalt shingles did not all re-stick. When the wind blew the flapping shingles sounded like someone was shuffling a deck of cards. The following spring we re-shingled his roof.
 
The house I live in was moved a half mile. Company out of Norfolk, VA did the move. Local contractor poured new footers and added a culvert over a small stream. Then dug out around the base at the old location. I emptied out the basement, took down all the breakable stuff from the walls, laid down tall furniture onto the floor. The actual move took less than four hours, The whole process took six weeks. They even moved the brick chimney. After the house was in the new location they jacked it up on cribbing and built a block basement under it. That was 19 years ago and not a crack in the walls or any damage. Only thing was some settling of the fill dirt and I had to rebuild the steps to my deck. Strangest move I ever made.
a207306.jpg
 
My next door neighbor moved a HUGE barn some 30 miles. It was featured on the History Channel on TV. I have photos of it somewhere if I can find them.

It was so heavy they had to do it in zero weather in the winter when the ground was frozen solid enough to carry the weight. Several hundred yards from its final destination, they had to cross a road ditch on a side hill. I didn't see that, and they didn't show it on TV.
 

There has been a lot of houses moved in our area. As the university expanded into the surrounding residential area the houses were sold on sealed bids. Then the new owner of the house would have it moved to a new location. They were moved across town or out into the country. I've even seen some of these houses moved to neighboring towns. About fifteen years ago a dairy barn was moved from one side of town to the other side. It took two days to make the move since they had to find a route around the town.
 
We had that in our area. In the late 1990's the hospital in the neighboring town was expanding, as was a small college in that town. All the surrounding houses were sold and moved out. My brother and I each bought one and moved it to our respective places.

My brother's house was quite large. They cut it in half and moved the halves separately, then reconnected them at the jobsite.

On mine we cut off the single garage and moved it separately. I made a free standing garage out of it after we got it there. I also moved two double garages onto our property.

My grandfather told me that the barn on his place had originally been moved onto the property as well.
 

When the local airport expanded a few years ago, one family moved a very nice log cabin home about 1/4 mile. Then house actually traveled about 2 miles to go around the roads to the new site. You can still see the house from the end of the runway. If they expand it again, the house might need to be moved again?
 
Never saw brick veneer moved with the house, I've only seen brick removed and replaced. in Oklahoma I've seen many on slab houses moved. Bottom two feet of sheetrock removed, anchor bolts cut, 2x12's screwed to the walls and beams run through the walls under the 2x12's and out each end to mover's dollys.
 
Back in the 1800's, the town of Rose Hill, Kansas moved a mile west so it would be on the new Santa Fe railroad that just went thru.
Probably wasn't a very big town at that time.

Now they complain about the 72 trains a day. LOL
 
When I was a kid in the 50s it was common for old farmers who wanted to move to town to be closer to grocery, etc. to have their farmhouse moved into town and they kept living in it. I can think of 4 such houses still standing at the wide spot in the road where I grew up. There were a number of house movers omn business in those days.

A local (Wichita, Ks) house mover just moved a three story 100 year old house from downtown Wichita a week or so ago. It only went a mile or so and was dropped onto a new, permanent foundation at the new site. Quik Trip wanted to expand a store but didn't want to destroy the house so they paid to have it relocated.
 

Have a neighbor up the road that completely dismantled a small dairy barn and rebuilt it on a new foundation at his place. Took him and his boys all summer to do it. It is a gabble roof timber frame building with a haymow. It looks like it was originally built on his place.
 
The old station in Canton was a bar also back then called the Hoot Owl you would be having a good time and a train would go by and the whole place would shake since it was right next to the track.
 
After the barn burned in 36,they moved one in here from about a mile and a half away. That one burned in 64.
Dad said the truck they used to move that one was a chain drive with hard rubber tires. After they got that one set,they pulled the pins and slid the end out 12 feet and filled in the gap with new material.
 
(quoted from post at 09:21:16 12/05/15) Back in the 1800's, the town of Rose Hill, Kansas moved a mile west so it would be on the new Santa Fe railroad that just went thru.
Probably wasn't a very big town at that time.

Now they complain about the 72 trains a day. LOL
Click to expand...
The people complaining are not the same ones that wanted to be close to the railroad :)
 
There's a cedar-shingled workshop building at our place that was shifted in the twenties so a garage could be put in. They cut into a hillside, put up a concrete retaining wall and a foundation, and then moved the building so its back is only about a foot away from the retaining wall. Visitors now always try to figure out how in heck the builders managed to shingle the back side of it!
 
40 years ago my mother bid on a house that had to be moved so a county highway could be built. she won the bid on the 3 br ranch with attached garage. had it moved 18 miles to her lot next to me---i dug the foundation hole with my R2 Cat,had a foundation put in, and set the house on it.
 
Last spring or early summer a house being moved in my area slid into the ditch when the dollies on the ditch side sank into the road. They ended up hauling it away in pieces and burning it. They were on hard surface for most of the route but had to take gravel for a few miles to avoid a major power line. A soft spot in the gravel road sank them. They had to follow the route assigned to them.
 
http://www.heritageparkofnorthiowa.com/the-park/park-projects/ellington-schoolhouse-move\

This was a modern day move using steam engines.
That company has moved grain elevators, silos, brick buildings and others. They can move buildings and not even take pictures off the wall or take things off of shelves inside the house.
 
People ask me how I got my caboose home, house movers moved it about 45 miles for me, 40 mph down the highway and through main street of one town.
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The caboose is in the back. Don't look at the used car.
 
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