mobile homes

This morning, four blocks of Main Street were closed and cordoned off. No cars, no bicycles, no pedestrians. The street signs, traffic lights and parking meters were all taken down. The University was moving three houses. Yes, really moving three houses. The University wanted to put up a new building where the houses stood, but the city's Historical Commission refused to allow them to be torn down. Solution: move the houses to another plot of land owned by the University, just a few blocks up the street.

Starting at 7:00 am, everyone was standing behind yellow plastic streamers inexplicably marked: Caution High Voltage. People were holding cameras over their heads or lifting children onto their shoulders. Everyone was watching a odd little parade of three grey Victorians with mansard roofs. The houses were arranged in order of size: first, a huge three-story, then a smaller three-story and, finally, a two-story carriage house. They had been cut off their foundations and jacked up on hydraulic dollies. Now, one at a time, they were rolling down Main Street , the biggest straddling the median strip. According to the glossy brochure someone was handing out, they were traveling at a speed of 2 mph. But even 2 mph looks awfully fast when you're gawking at a house on wheels driving down an empty street. Someone yelled, "Bon voyage." And no, it wasn't me.


Note: The photo isn't very good, but it's the only one I took that shows all three houses. You just can see the carriage house at the far right, behind the medium-sized house.