In the early morning hours of Sunday, July 29, when most people are comfortably asleep in their beds, a crew of several dozen people will be taking part in a meticulously planned effort to move a two-story Craftsman home six blocks from its original site.
At 2 in the morning, two trucks from Nickel Brothers House Moving Ltd. will lift the home from its foundation at 209 Boston St. and then begin the careful process of moving it down the streets of Queen Anne to the old home's new address at Fourth Avenue North and Smith Street.
It's a massively coordinated effort with crews from King County Metro, Seattle City Light, Comcast and Qwest as well as the house movers themselves, an arborist and Valhalla Construction Company. Bus lines, power lines, telephone wires and cables will have to be moved and put back during the hours-long process. And all this time the architect behind the move will be watching.
The home, a gray Craftsman with white trim, was built around 1906. A developer originally planned on demolishing the graceful house, which sits high up on its original lot. Queen Anne architect Steve McDonald, AIA, heard about the old house and got the grand idea of moving it to the empty lot next to his own home.
It has taken McDonald of Mithun Architects, a firm internationally recognized for sustainable design, more than a year of research, planning, meetings with various city utility companies, land planners and the house movers, along with negotiations with the developer, to finalize the plan. He will see his dream become reality next Sunday morning.
"As an architect with a real passion for conservation, the opportunity to maintain the character of the neighborhood was a no-brainer," McDonald says. "This is an old home with lots of heart and character, and to just dismiss it to a landfill seems senseless."
Nickels Brothers House Moving Ltd. is a British Columbia-based company that moves or lifts about 300 homes every year. This is the first house move the company will have made on Queen Anne.
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