Nothing can slow down the condos in this town, but sometimes, the occasional house is able to scurry away.
Like 106 John Street, the 142-year-old house
—two houses when the structure was built for its original owners,
a piano-maker and a contractor—which was moved about 200 metres south to make room for a
new tower on Adelaide by Pinnacle.
Moving is a several week-long process.
Danco, a company from Sutton West, Ontario, specializing in heritage house moves, does this sort of work about eight or 10 times a year.
"This was pretty much the same as every other house we've done," says Danco's Danny Myette. "But it's always a little tougher downtown. You don't have as much room to work, and we had to take two 90-degree turns.... If you're going to have problems, that's where you're going to have them."
The process involved putting 13 steel crossbeams and two main beams under the house and then raising it using 26 hydraulic jacks. The process began in August and was completed two weeks ago.
The house, which Myette estimates weighed 278 tonnes, took a day to move across two parking lots, to be set down next to the Bell Lightbox tower closer to King Street.
It's the second time Danco moved the house to accommodate the needs of the construction site.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Danny Myette
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