Historic Monroe Street Home Moves Slowly But Surely

A historic home at 820 Monroe St. is in the process of being moved to its new location—about 200 feet away. 

The home, formerly owned by Carl Payne, was purchased by Lawrence Doll Homes and is to be included in a new community of 10 properties off of Monroe Street. 

The community will be called Monroe Hill, and the Payne home will eventually have a new address on Monroe Hill Court. Town officials, as well as local historians were on hand to watch the move. (Watch a time-lapse video here.)

Crews showed up early Wednesday morning to begin setting up for the move. The home had to be placed on stilts and steal beams before the moving crew could be brought in.

From there the crew placed four hydraulic sets of wheels under the home that are controlled remotely. The home was moved ever so slowly off of its original location, where it had no foundation. The wheels then had to be manually turned so the home could continue its journey to its new home. 

The historic home will be upgraded and will become the centerpiece of the new Monroe Hill community. Some of the new construction houses in the community will be modeled after it. 

Each house will be built as architecturally accurate Craftsman style homes featuring four or more bedrooms and three and a half baths or more.

The homes, ranging from 2,800 square feet to 3,679 square feet, will start at $716,900. Two of the properties have already been sold.

Doll Homes purchased the property from Payne in 2006 for $2 million. The property was assessed at $669,810 this year.