House move in Fisher Park this Saturday starting at 7 a.m.
The sight of a big house being carried down city streets draws a crowd.
This Saturday, indecision finally settled over who gets the two-story, 3,000-square foot at 620 N. Elm St., the dwelling will be moved slowly, oh so slowly, toward a vacant lot in the 200 block of West Bessemer Avenue.
The move will start at about 7 a.m. and will cover a distance of about four and a half blocks along North Elm, Fisher Park Circle, Carolina Street and West Bessemer, all within the Fisher Park neighborhood.
Ann Alexander, director of communications for First Presbyterian Church, which owned the house and offered to give it free to anyone who would move it, said the movers expect the journey to take about 12 hours.
The person who agreed to move the house is David Brossoit, who lives on West Bessemer across from the vacant lot where the house will be relocated. The church agreed to give him the house after Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on North Greene Street considered asking for the house, but decided against it.
Brossoit plans to renovate the house and sell it as a restored single-family home. For the past 25 years, the house, which stands across the North Elm entrance to the church, has been used for offices. The church wanted the house removed to create more church parking.
The move represents a partial victory for Fisher Park residents and preservationists. They would have preferred the house stay where it was constructed as a private home in 1930. It remained a home until about 1980.
Moving the house, however, is an acceptable option for most neighborhood residents. The house will fit with the architectural pattern of other homes along West Bessemer.