In Skagway, Alaska in the very early 20th century, folks moved buildings quite often simply by jacking them up, putting them on as many wagons as it took and pulling them off to the lot where they wanted to put the new building. They had to move quite a few buildings in the first few weeks as the main trail through town cut across the town grid system and main buildings had to be realigned. As photography was quite common by that time, the process is well-documented.

Buildings that did not need to be moved very far were set on rollers, men put their backs into the job and simply pushed it the few feet it took.

Cathy



Catherine H. Spude, PhD
Montana Dawn, Enterprises
7 Avenida Vista Grande #145
Santa Fe, NM 87508
505-466-1476 home
505-913-1326 cell

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"Life is not tried, it is merely survived if you're standing outside the fire." Jenny Yates and Garth Brooks.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Claire Horn<mailto:[log in to unmask]> 
  To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> 
  Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2007 6:35 AM
  Subject: 19th cen. house moving


  Hi -

  I'm working on analysing front yard depositions of a site where the
  original house was built in the 1850s, then moved across town prior to
  construction of a 2nd, larger house around 1876.  Does anyone have an idea
  about how houses would have been moved around that time - i.e., taken
  apart piece by piece and reassembled, or moved whole?  We have a layer of
  very gravelly fill capping the original surface, and I'm wondering if the
  gravel could be related in any way to the house moving.  Not that we don't
  often find gravelly fill.

  Thanks!

  Claire Horn
  Public Archaeology Facility
  Binghamton, NY