A man paid more than $400,000 to move his Victorian house without dismantling in San Francisco. Hundreds of neighbors registered the shocking moment.
The approximately 5,200-square-foot, pale green, two-story house, popularly known as the Englander House, was transported on a hydraulic wheeled platform that was pulled by a truck.
The home was custom designed by German architect Wildrich Winterhalter and sold in 2013 to a developer for $2.6 million who was interested in building condos on the vacant lot near the building.
Phil Joy, who oversaw the move, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the quarter-mile trip of the house took several years to plan.
After receiving government approval to go ahead with his plan, he organized everything to make the move during the pandemic, which the owner himself confessed: “was a nightmare.”
To circulate through the streets of the city, branches had to be cut from some trees that impeded the movement. They also removed parking meters, part of the street lighting, and power lines.
For this reason, hundreds of operators, cranes, and other machinery worked in the place to every inch, allowing the house to be loaded onto the truck.
A 48-unit and eight-story apartment complex will be built where the Englander home used to be. While in its new location it will be accompanied by a 17-unit building and an old mortuary next door.
The person in charge of the entire move assured that he had to hire at least 15 municipal agencies to agree on the move of the house.
Since 1974 the city of San Francisco has not witnessed something similar, in that year 14 houses were moved from their original place following the tradition of keeping the property under the same family.