Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Modern House Moving 1906

In 1906, New Orleans businessman George J. Abry (caricature above) published an article in the locally produced journal, Architectural Art and Its Allies. In it, he addressed the science of house moving:

"A great part of the work of to-day is remedying defects of all kinds, growing out of many causes, such as building adjoining, undermining foundations, irregular settle and overloading.

In such cases it requires experience to know where to take hold. In many instances it is of financial interest to the owner of a building to have it raised, lowered, moved or shored.

House moving was not so extensively carried on in times past as it is at present; streets were graded to conform with the buildings thereon while now the buildings are made to conform with the grade of the streets; small buildings were demolished to make room for the erection of larger ones, while now the small ones are moved to a new location to make room for the larger ones; buildings can now be raised and additional stories built under them, or roofs can be raised and additional stories built on the old walls; fronts of walls of adjoining buildings can be shored up while the walls of new buildings are sunk, all of which come under the head of House Moving."

Read an earlier post about the Abry business.

George J. Abry. "Modern House Moving and Shoring." Architectural Art and Its Allies II:4 (October 1906): p. 5. Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Image above:  W.K. Patrick & Assoc. Club Men of Louisiana in Caricature. East Aurora, NY: The Roycrofters, 1917, p. 215. As viewed 3 Jan 2012 on the Internet Archive: http://archive.org/stream/clubmenoflouisia00patr#page/214/mode/2up


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