Moving a 12-Family Tenement Building in 1917-18
No movers could be found in Connecticut willing to undertake the job
In my most recent video on YouTube, I mention a three-story apartment building that had to be moved out of the way for the extension of Hudson Street, between Capitol Avenue and Elm Street, back at the very end of 1917 and the start of 1918. The long tenement block, large enough to house twelve families, was built in 1897. It originally faced north, but had to be moved 90 degrees to face east. No local contractors were found willing to undertake the task. Instead, the supervising architects hired a company from New York State, Nicholas Brothers, which is still in business today, 107 years later.
The Hartford Courant had an interesting article about the project, published on December 29, 1917, when work was still in its initial stages. I want to quote from the article below, which goes into more detail about the job than I was able to include in the video:
The largest house moving Job that has been done in this city for years is now being tackled by a New York concern in connection with the construction of the new street, Hudson street extension, that will connect Wells and Elm streets and afford traffic a new highway running from the north city line to the south line without once touching Main street. The job will not be completed until the spring but the contractors are now working on the bridge across the Park River from Wells to Elm street and on the houses that are in the path of the north end of the street. One of these is the twelve- family brick house now running east and west, but which must be turned to run north and south, parallel to the new street, in whose path the east and of the building now lies. This building is owned by Mrs. Bessie M. Beers and Mrs. Martha P. Skinner, and so far as is known, is the largest building that has over been moved in this city. It is a brick structure three stories high, eighty-three feet long and forty-five feet wide, and it houses twelve families, or did before they word ejected for the moving operations.
Ono reason why the supervising architects, Rossner & Goodrich, of No. 647 Main street, believe the job is the largest ever tackled in this city is that they were unable to find a contractor in the state who would take the job, although they tried the best ones in Meriden, Springfield and this city. There are plenty of contractors who can raze houses, but few who move them, and none in this vicinity who had large enough timbers to do the work on a twelve- family brick apartment house.
The concern, Nicholas Brothers of Yonkers and Mt. Vernon, New York, have done a great deal of moving work in that state. They had to have eight freight cars to move their timbers and jacks here from New York. They got the contract through Rossner & Goodrich, and there is a possibility that while the concern is here with its outfit that it may move some of the other houses in that vicinity that will have to move on account of the new street. The house was, moved twelve inches yesterday for the first time, although the contractors have been here three weeks getting jacked up. For a couple of months work has been going on in the shape of excavations for the cellar, and a new foundation was put in before the extreme cold weather came. First the house had to be "jacked up" off from the old foundation, from which it tore itself loose as the jacks strained at the under timbers. This jacking is done by workmen using crowbars. The house had to be raised two feet six inches to the new street level. About 120 jacks were used in this operation. When the jacks have raised the building twelve inches, which is all that it is safe to tackle at one time, it takes half an hour to fix the jacks again. In the meantime the house is supported by blocks that are put under it when the jacks have done their work. When the house is raised to the proper height and is resting on the long timbers which are pointed in the right direction then a horse- operated windlass is brought into play to draw the house around. Measures have to be taken to keep the west end of the house practically stationary, as just the cast end must be swung around to face the south, a distance of 106 feet. It is a big job, and the New York firm is taking it over in good shape, according to the architects, who are greatly pleased to have found some one who could do the work.
In spite of all the work done to move the apartment building, it only survived for a few more years after being moved into its new configuration. The entire corner was transformed with the construction of the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company Building, completed in 1926.