By coincidence I was in Old Forge/Thendara a couple of weeks ago and ate
dinner at Van Auken's Inn.  The story Marty relates is featured in the
informational brochures distributed by the Inn.

	Tom

W. Thomas Langhorne, Jr., Ph.D.
Pre-Health Professions Advisor
Adjunct Assistant Professor-Anthropology
Binghamton University
PO Box 6000
Binghamton, NY  13902-6000
phone  607.777.6305   fax  607.777.2721
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-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Marty
Pickands
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 9:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 19th cen. house moving

Claire-

If you have ever been to Old Forge, New York, you will have driven past Van
Auken's Inn, a large 19th c. hotel in the hamlet of Thendara, directly
across the street from the Thendara railroad station. This hotel was
originally built in 1891 right beside the station, fronting on the tracks,
but sparks from the locomotives kept catching it on fire. The story told
locally, by surviving members of the following generation, is that the
primary local house builder, George Ginther, was hired to move it in 1908.
He used log rollers to do the job, which involved moving it about 200 ft.
and setting it on a new foundation. Before the move, one of the wealthier
patrons placed $200 on the bar, under a tumbler filled to the brim with
water, and told Ginther that if he could make the move without spilling a
drop the money was his. As the bar continued to serve throughout the process
(Thendara being a logging town), a number of people witnessed his success.
The electrical service remained o!
 n during the move as well.


Marty Pickands
New York State Museum
>>> Claire Horn <[log in to unmask]> 09/01/07 8:35 AM >>>
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