It's always interesting to see an old house being moved a few blocks away to preserve the home while freeing up the property for new development. In driving buyers around, we'll often point out a house that was moved.
Photos on the front page of both the St. Petersburg Times was an article and photo showed a house being moved on Tampa Bay. Not just a house, a beautiful house, a big house. The house was a Queen Anne Victorian, painted blue with white trim, built in 1910. The house has 5,000 sq ft and was moved with its porte cochere, turret, and wraparound porch. I weighed 220 tons, and a carriage house was behind it on the same barge. The house was moved 25 miles, from the Manatee River in Palmetto, Florida (Manatee County) up the shipping channel of Tampa Bay and then down the Little Manatee River near Ruskin, Florida (Hillsborough County). More photos at the Tampa Tribune.
Spectators from the house's old home and it's new home, as well as the curious, lined the waterways to see this spectacular site - a colorful three story home being moved in its entirety along the water. The barge was 45 feet wide by 145 feet long.
The house was priced right, really right - $1.00 - but the moving cost is estimated at $250,000. Kim Brownie was the house moving contractor. Brownie comes from a lifetime of moving houses - a business started by his grandfather, which Brownie took over at age 19. Now his son, Jeremy, works with him as well.
We recently had a house here that was actually built on a barge and then moved down the river to a small island off Long Island Sound. It was quite an event to see!
Linda - great event! How come it's taken over a year for me to see your response? Guess I was a real "dummy" a year ago!
Bob - it certainly is.
Mark - it's always something to enjoy.
Cecelia - that would have been interesting. I haven't seen a pool moved.
Karen - why?