Moving A House By Water

1896

A remarkable feat of engineering has just been successfully accomplished by a Pacific coast firm. An attorney named Ernest Sevier is the owner of a two-story house at Arcata, twelve miles from Eureka. Owing to a decline in the value of property at Arcata Sevier determined to have the house moved to Eureka, where he intended having it set up on some land that he owned.

A firm of contractors undertook to remove the house intact and set it up, uninjured, for the sum of $1,200. In case it was unfit for occupancy upon its arrival they were to receive the dwelling as their compensation.

The trip was made principally by water. To remove the house to the edge of the bay was the first difficulty to be overcome, as it necessitated taking the building over a large dyke and a marsh. This was accomplished satisfactorily and the house was transferred to two railroad lighters that had been lashed together in readiness for the trip.

The journey by water was completed with the aid of a tug without accident, and an immense crowd assembled at Eureka to welcome the strange craft.

Amid the cheers of the spectators and the tooting of steam whistles the lighters were made fast and the house transferred to land once more. It was a comparatively easy matter to convey it to its new site and the strange engineering feat was accomplished without any more damage being done to the house than a slight cracking of the plaster.