By Kate Burch
A house being moved down Danforth Street in Portland by teams of oxen c1892. The photo was taken from 384 Danforth Street.
Structural relocation has a long history. One of the earliest references to moving a building is a London house that was relocated in 1598 due to a dispute between neighbors. In the 18th and 19th century buildings were moved using constructed wooden carriage systems and pulling buildings with teams of horses or oxen. It was not an easy process – primitive jacks and the uneven force of the animals made it difficult for buildings to stay level, and often caused chimneys to collapse.
Moving a building across the bridge that crosses the Mousam River at Bridge Street in Springvale. Photographed in 1906.
Contemporary sources describe Americans as enthusiastic house relocators in the 19th century. In Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832) Frances Trollope writes, "One of the sights to stare at in America is that of a house being moved from place to place... .The largest house that I saw in motion was one containing two stories of four rooms each; forty oxen were yoked to it. The first few yards brought down the two stacks of chimneys, but afterwards all went well.”’
Moving Fred Hall's house down Pine Point beach in Scarborough. The August 3, 1924 Portland Sunday Telegram ran the picture with the following caption: “Fred W. Hall has solved the disagreeable problem of moving. Instead of packing up his furniture, piling it into a truck, and unpiling it at the end of the trip, Mr. Hall moves the house and all, thereby relieving Mrs. Hall of the onerous duty of 'settling.'" The house was moved a mile and a half at a pace of about 600 to 700 feet a day. The crew of men continuously moved greased skids onto tracks laid ahead of the house.
Mid-19th century improvements in technology made structural relocation less difficult. The invention of the hydraulic jack, replacing wooden screw jacks, allowed houses to be lifted more easily and evenly. Locomotives and boats were also employed to move houses, preventing damage through a steadier pull – although as you can see from photos, many local projects in Maine still employed animals well into the 20th century.
In 1905, the Benjamin Green House in Brunswick was moved from its original location at the corner of Maine and Cumberland Streets to 259 Maine Street. The photograph shows a train blocking the house from moving over the train tracks on Maine Street. The railroad company was afraid the house would damage its tracks. After hours of negotiation, the train finally moved and the house could continue on its journey.
A large colonial mansion, known as "Spite House," was loaded on a railroad lighter at Phippsburg Center to be transported 85 miles to Rockport on July 26, 1925. The 119-year-old mansion had been sold to Donald D. Dodge of Philadelphia, who wanted it located in the summer colony of Rockport. It took three hours to load it onto the lighter (a flat-bottomed boat usually used in inland waterways) and then was delivered the same day.
The Gothic House
Greater Portland Landmarks is responsible for one of Portland’s well-known house moves. As part of a larger urban renewal plan for downtown Portland, in 1967 plans were developed to widen the section of Spring Street east of High Street to create an arterial in the middle of the city. That plan required the removal of many buildings on both sides of the planned roadway, including the 1845 John J. Brown House – also known as the Gothic House – at the site of the current Holiday Inn.
Portland’s urban renewal movement was the driving force behind the creation of Greater Portland Landmarks in 1964, and Landmarks’ campaign for the Spring Street Historic District stopped the Spring Street Arterial project from progressing west of High Street.
The developers of the Holiday Inn gave the Gothic House to Landmarks, and Landmarks arranged for the building to be moved from 87 Spring Street to its current location at 387 Spring Street in the West End. Because of the width of the streets, the house was moved down to Commercial Street and back up Danforth Street to Spring Street. The house was then sold for the cost of the move to Mrs. Austin Lamont.
The John J. Brown House in its current location of 387 Spring Street.
Photos from the Maine Historical Society, via Maine Memory Network