House moving has been going on longer than you probably imagine. This page provides some brief information on the history of house moving and links to articles on some historic and interesting moves. While not quite the 16th century, Brittons has been moving buildings in New Zealand since 1957.

The first recorded move - in the 16th century

The first record of a house being moved was printed in "The Survey of London", dated 1598, by John Stow. A copy of the article is in the Volume 13, No.2 issue of the "Structural Mover". The cause of the move was the demand of the land for use by a "higher" authority. The move was on wooden rollers, and although this is the first recorded move, the appropriation of land was the basis of the article that included the house move.

Clarke House

The house known as the Clarke House, has had two historical moves and is now part of the Prairie Avenue House Museums. The house, was built in Chicago in the roaring early nineteenth century, by a pioneer hardware merchant. Henry Brown Clark used the Greek, Revival style to build the house on a 20-acre tract near 18th Street and Indiana Avenue in 1836.

First move
The demand for the land the Clarke House was originally built on, was created by the explosive land values dictated by the location of Chicago. A fresh water port, it first tied Chicago to New York City by the Erie Canal. The canal opened in 1825, in New York State. A second 100 mile long canal, crossing Illinois, opened a water route to New Orleans in 1848.

The economic pressure increased and Henry Clarke moved his Greek Revival Home with four fireplaces from the then centre of the city to an area outside the city. This move, in 1871, was just a few months before the great fire of Chicago, and the Clarke House was one of the few houses that were saved.

Second move
One hundred and six years later, the Clarke House again took to the road under the guidance of Advance Moving Engineers and Belding Corporation, also known as Pete Friesen and Chip Belding. The huge timbers and wooden rolls of the first trip were replaced by steel beams and 62 pneumatic rubber tires for the majority of the trip. The Chicago "L", required a change of moving gear. At the "L", The house was raised 27' from the ground to clear the elevated tracks. As the rubber tired dollies remained at ground level, a pair of roll beams were installed under the mains, with a set of crawler dollies between the roll beams and the mains. The roll and main beams were welded together for the jacking process. Cribs were placed on the far side of the elevated track identical to the first set of cribs. Midnight Saturday night, the power was shut off on the elevated tracks and a pair of roll beams were installed between the roll beams that had been installed on each side of the track, to complete the rollway.

In two hours and forty minutes the roll track and both pull and hold cables were installed, ready for the move. Seventy minutes were used to safely move the house from the west side of the tracks, to the east side. Three days were needed to lower the house back onto the dollies with 62 tires. Bad weather delayed finishing the move for two weeks.

The Clarke House has since been fully restored and is open to the public for display, as part of the Prairie House Museum.

Princeton, New Jersey

In the area of Princeton in the late 1800s, it was common to move houses. In act over the last 130 years, more than 200 buildings have been moved in Princeton.

The Brown Mansion

The year is 1903, you have a three-storey brick house that has stood for 75 years at the base of a cliff. Walls of the house have been embellished by artists over the years and now the railroad company is going to put its tracks through the house. If you're Capt. S.S. Brown, you call in the house movers.