Claire,
    Two very good, and available sources that would be good for NY/NJ sites include:
  Gabriel Lanier & Bernard Herman, Everyday Architecture of the Middle Atlantic; and Thomas C. Hubka, Big House, Little House, Back House Barn.  Both books discuss the vernacular architecture of portions of New York and I believe that you will find that the typical practice for moving a house was simply to jack it and put it onto carts or wagons with as little disassembling as possible.  I also believe that Hubka's book has actual photographs of the nineteenth century techniques that were employed in lifting and moving buildings.
   
  I hope that this helps.
   
  Scott Wieczorek

Claire Horn <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
  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


       
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