CAMERON PARK MEMORIES

1977_______MOVING the ERWIN HOUSE_______1977 "a rather festive crowd"
"Traffic stalled, power lines cut in house move" The News & Observer, Nov. 28, 1977 [Paragraph order re-assembled from original article.] Traffic was diverted for more than 12 hours Sunday from several blocks of Hillsborough Street near St. Mary's College to make way for an extra-wide load -- a 220-ton house. Work started about 7 a.m. as the house was lifted from its foundation with 16 hydraulic jacks, placed on a large platform and later turned onto Hillsborough. The 45-foot-square, two-story brick house began slowly creeping along its route about 8 a.m. and did not stop moving until after dark. The house came to rest at the corner of East Park Drive and Hillsborough, on a lot next to its final destination. The house, owned by Raleigh attorney Tom S. Erwin, loomed large over the four lanes of Hillsborough Street and took most of the day to move. It had been at 807 Hillsborough Street [just west of intersection with St. Mary's Street]. Erwin said the house was originally built by Don Juan Ellis around 1880 and was renovated in 1917 when W. W. Vass, Jr., moved in. Vass moved in after marrying a descendent of Aldert Root, Jr., whose uncle had lived in the house at one time. About 375 Carolina Power and Light customers temporarily lost electrical service when power lines were cut to let the house pass. Several cars parked along the route had to be pushed out [of] the way by workmen. Workmen with McCrary Brothers Moving Contractors of Seagrove and Winston-Salem squeezed the big brick structure under the wires and around tree branches while a rather festive crowd of about 100 looked on. Many spectators brought cameras and took pictures. "We're hoping to have it off the street before rush hour tomorrow," a friend of Erwin's said during one point in the afternoon after several delays. It was a small job compared to the move earlier this year of the 1,400-ton Seaboard Coast Line building in downtown Raleigh. That move took several weeks. Albert L. Morris, CP&L spokesman, said about 300 customers lost power for about four minutes just before 7 p.m. when the power lines were cut. Morris said power lines had been raised before the house move began, but estimates of how much clearance would be necessary were inaccurate. Power then had to be cut off in some lines so they could be raised higher. Of the remaining 75 customers without power, most were without power for about 30 to 90 minutes. Service was restored to the last four customers about 10 p.m., he said. Raleigh police diverted traffic between the 800 block of Hillsborough and the new location for the house on 1305 [College Place], about five blocks west and on the block north of the original site. Raleigh police said Hillsborough was reopened to traffic about 8:30 p.m.	"a rather festive crowd" "an extra-wide load -- a 220-ton house" "originally built by Don Juan Ellis around 1880" and a good time was had by all
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