Historic Portland house moves (slowly) to new home
PORTLAND, Ore. – A century-old Southeast Portland house will soon have a new home – about one block away.
Sunday, crews began to move the historic house from Southeast 26th and Hawthorne to 25th and Madison Street.
"This house is sitting on steel high beams," said Pat Brady with Emmert International. "It thinks it's still sitting on a foundation. This is your ultimate mobile home right here."
A Portland family who lives nearby bought the 1907 house for just one dollar.
“It was either the house was gonna be taken down, or if it could be moved, and we got a call from a woman saying ‘can we store an old house’ on the lot that we purchased,” said Beth Bonness.
“It’s been a real, a real six weeks of intense planning, deciding if we can do this, can we not do it, so now it’s happening,” said Jeff McCaffrey.
A crowd gathered to watch the slow, careful move on a hydraulically-powered dolly Sunday.
“Oh, it’s incredible,” said Amanda McCaffrey, who is an architecture student at the University of Oregon. “I’m really excited, and it’s exciting that they’re choosing to save an old house and refurbish that instead of build new materials, so saving an old house is a better option.”
The move makes way for a new 77-unit apartment complex.
KATU's Melanie Wingo contributed to this story.
wait and see what Emmert will charge you!  I know its outrage!
@america no common sense! They obviously knew what Emmert charges...and really, with this kind of business, I would hope that Emmert charges a lot. Can you imagine their insurance premiums? And considering they purchased this home for a dollar I'm sure that what they pay Emmert is doable for them...unless you can move it for WAY cheaper :/
Thank you for saving this home! It would have fit perfectly on my lot, dammit. :> These and the giant trees that have typically grown up around them are what make Portland awesome.
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"The move makes way for a new 77-unit apartment complex."
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Isn't that nice? Historic Portland has to move out of the way because we need new houses for all those people who came here for jobs. Oh, wait, there's a job shortage, but, whatever. If there's anything Hawthorne--which was built for houses such as this one--needs it's another 200 people living on it. Awesome.
I saw this on Thursday and the entire house was lifted off the ground. Caught me off guard, it was an incredible thing to see, although kind of scary since it was about 8-10ft off the ground and leaning on a slope (AND there were workers walking underneath it).
@s.c.h. Are you sereous? You would never catch me under or on the downhill side of something like that moving! Those folks do a wonderful job. Moving a huge building must be a major planning and executing project. Glad they saved a 100 year old treasure like this, makes up for what the tards did to the 100 year old statues. (a little, anyway)
From the sign on the house, I'm guessing Terry Emmert's company did the move. He's the guy who moved the Spruce Goose years ago. He also helped us "Move" the Portlandia statue for an April 1st gag on KUPL18 or so, years ago.
How many off street parking spots come with that new 77-unit apartment complex?
@Lost River My guess is few if any since Portland zoning allows building apartments complexes withOUT onsite parking.
Why? Is there a shortage of housing?
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I feel sorry for the poor saps who live by that site, parking along the street will soon be exponentially worse.
 @kramr That's exactly what the planners want. Cram more people into smaller spaces and then don't provide parking. It gets people off the land and gets them out of their cars.
 @Scotty9 They're a lot easier to round up that way, too.
 @Scotty9  @kramr Okay, then. It isn't just me who thinks that. I've never found a native Oregonian who said it's better now than it was 20 or 30 years ago.
 @Playanekes  @kramrÂ
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I remembered seeing this beautiful house when I was growing up. Glad it have a good property to put it on for next 100 years or more with best present and future home owners! Only $1.00 excellent price!
@Sunny 1 buck to buy, how much to move it there & the new concrete foundation to set it on etc and plumb it in new & wire the power box etc?? Gotta be at least $50,000. Then all the settling and fix all cracks due to moving it etc. Not one door will close right for at least a year of settling ...
 @Zechariah Still a good deal. They don't build houses like this anymore.
@Playanekes @medborgare @Zechariah I would presume the new owners did an inspection first.  In the fact the moving company probably did a VERY thorough inspection to make sure it would survive the move.
 @medborgare  @Zechariah Agreed. Another $100,000 to strip it down, shore it up and modernize it, and it's a half-million dollar home. (OR, it's full of termites and black mold. Guess you'd want to know that first.)
This house was located right on Hawthorne, across the street from the Safeway store and the Holman Funeral Parlor. The house next to it is equally lovely too. Beautiful homes. I can't imagine though, where there's a lot big enough for it on 25th and Madison. All those old houses are pretty close together. Did they have to take one down? Either way....it's a gorgeous house. So glad it's getting a new life :)
Man, I wonder how money it takes to move a house..Talk about moving expenses..On the plus side the Credit Union gets a great excuse to get a new Drive through . Every ones is a winner here.
Oh what an awesome old house..! Â I would LOVE to have enough money to buy an old home like that, and completely restore it... modernize plumbing, electrical, heat, of course, but keep the beautiful old features that those homes had... Â Most of the homes constructed today just have no personality at all... Â Fun to dream... Â :-)
 @margay1 While I agree with you to a point Margay, the rooms in older homes are too restrictive and don't "flow" into each other for the open feeling most people enjoy. Now if you build a new house that looks old, but still has the features of the modern I'd buy that in a heartbeat.
Wonder if Norman Bates' mother went along for the ride?