Just outside my front door there’s been a fascinating construction project unfolding over recent months.
Since we moved to Newton in 2009 there’s always been a derelict house right across the street from us.
One half of the house was totally unhabitable. The other half, just barely.
When the owner died a few years ago, the property got tied up for quite a while in probate court. Eventually it was sold early this year.
The new owner hoped to knock it down and rebuild it from the ground up. Because it’s in the Upper Falls Historic District, its not that simple. The new owner worked for months with the Upper Falls Historic Commission to come up with a plan that worked for both him and the Commission. In the end, it was agreed by all that the rear portion of the L shaped house could be torn down because it was so far gone. The Commission wanted to save the main portion of this 19th century. Despite the fact that it was such an eyesore, if you squinted your eyes and had a little imagination you could see that the original house, if restored, could once again be a beauty.
The new owner came up with a plan and over the last few months we’ve been intrigued at 
watching out our front door at how its done.
The plan was to knock the rear section down, take the main portion of the house and move it 6′ forward towards the street and then build a new L portion towards the back of the lot.
They stripped off all the external shingles, covered the exterior with sheetwood, then wrapped it all in Tyvek and braced the bottom of the house.
Next they dug out all around the foundation and inserted steel rails under the house. I’m a bit fuzzy about the next few steps but eventually they dug out the entire basement and 
foundation and ended up with the house suspended about 6′ above the ground on wooden supports with the steel rails on top, and the house above that.
This week they’ve been digging out what will be the new foundation extending out in front of the house towards the street.
I’m definitely looking forward to see how they move it forward and plant it in its new location in the coming weeks. I’m sure the project still has a long road ahead of it but I’m looking forward to to the day when its done, and the ramshackle house that we’ve always had out our front door is replaced by a new? handsome 19th centrury house
This reminds me of the house that collapsed on Chestnut St about a year ago. Anyone know what ended up happening to that property?
While an impressive feat of engineering and construction. They’re doing all of this to save the frame of a house that will be covered up by new exterior finishes and new interior finishes?
I’m also curious about the house on chestnut that collapsed was rebuilt and then construction halted many months ago.
About 1-1/2 yes ago, big home near us on Morton was picked up and moved forward, then the back was added on to. There was plenty of room in front and now I the home has an ample front yard and an ample back yard.
I once saw a house being moved down the street in Cambridge. They loaded in a giant trailer. It was a sight to behold!
My brother loves in a house in Norwood. A previous owner moved it to a new site about 1/8 mile away. That Cambridge house move or my brother’s house move are in a whole nother league than my neighbor I.e. loading it onto a trailer or truck and driving it away.
I love watching that kind of stuff!
@Jerry – does your brother also live there, or does he just go there on occasion to love?
Hah!!
https://g.co/kgs/u5K5n4
i was going to leave that one alone :P
This is something that was pretty common years ago. My former house at 48 Indiana Terrace was moved twice, from Oak Street to Ossipee in the early 20th century and then from Ossipee to where it stands on Indiana Terrace today in ~1924. That is, if you believe Ken Newcomb (and who doesn’t?). It must have been some sight to see the house rolling up Indiana Terrace. Thrifty New Englanders thought it much easier to move one than to build from scratch, I suppose.
More common but no less sensational a sight, I’m sure. We’ve been told that the Hut in the Newton Centre Playground was once an Episcopal church where our house stands now. This was at the end of the 19th century, when horses would have done the hauling. The epitome of Yankee recycling. (The congregation upgraded to Neo-Gothic, Trinity, at the corner of Centre and Homer.)
Some years ago, the large Victorian at the corner of Waverly and Washington on Hunnewell Hill was rotated- the house was kept on the spot, but lifted and spun around. I was never sure why– maybe the owners didn’t like the way the sun hit their sitting rooms? In any case, it was quite the feat, and watching it develop over time was entertaining.
The two houses at the corner of Pennsylvania/Indiana/Hale in Upper Falls were once a single house which was split, with one of the resulting halves spun around, I’ve been told.