City expansion causes relocation of 3 historic homes

NOBLESVILLE, Ind. -- Music played and hundreds of bystanders watched from porches, sidewalks and rooftops as three century-old houses were paraded across downtown to make way for a City Hall expansion.\nThe festival atmosphere Saturday in the central Indiana city of about 33,000 was part of a plan to save the 1889 Hare House, 1880 Axline House and an adjacent carriage house from the wrecking ball.\nOfficials in the city about 25 miles north Indianapolis were ready to demolish the houses last fall, until local entrepreneur Hassan "Rocky" Shanehsaz came up with a plan to turn moving and renovating the homes into a community event complete with live music, fresh food and train rides.\n"I didn't want to miss this. It's pretty crazy to see all three houses just coming down the street like that," 20-year-old Erik Simmons said about 8 a.m. as the Axline house crept by the front porch of his home on 10th Street.\nNewburg-based MCF Movers hauled the homes south on 10th Street, west on Mulberry Street and then south on Eighth Street, using an elaborate system of dollies and pulleys that enabled tractor-trailers to slowly pull the buildings -- weighing a total of more than 200 tons -- through town.\nOnlookers gasped and pointed as the roof of the 97-ton Hare House scraped against a few branches on trees that had been pruned back out of the homes' path at 10th and Mulberry.\n"Turning the corners are the trickiest part," said 80-year-old Everett Latham, who was watching from a lawn chair on a friend's front porch.\n"Look how close that is," said his wife, Gerry Latham, 79. "They measured the street and trimmed those trees just perfect." The Lathams are retired teachers who have lived in Noblesville since 1951.\nWorkers in aerial lifts raised power, telephone and cable lines ahead of the approaching homes, and slipped them back in place once the homes passed. About 100 people, including volunteers, police officers and street department employees, were involved in the project.\nThe homes reached their new sites shortly before 4 p.m. The Hare House will be turned into the Hamilton County Interpretive Center, which will host rotating art exhibits. The Axline House and its carriage house will become offices for local nonprofit organizations.\nMoving and renovating the homes was expected to cost a total of $400,000, of which the city gave $168,000. Shanehsaz said he is working on a plan to save another 110-year-old home from being torn down.