Famous House and Building Moves

Eastman Building Movers has noticed over the years of moving buildings that the moves attract quite a crowd. We understand why! The whole process is fascinating! From jacking and cribbing to the actual move (whether it is just down the street or across town!) it is an exciting spectacle to see. While we focus on Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts in our business, as you will see while perusing this list, there have been famous move across the country and across the world.

Heaviest Intact Building

Listed in the Guiness Book of World Records the Fu Gang Building in China is the heaviest building ever moved intact. Twelve lifting jacks with a 200-ton capacity EACH were brough in to move the 15,140 metric ton building...a staggering 33,377,986 pounds! The building was moved 125 feet during a neighborhood revitalization project. The building was unique and the city wanted to preserve it. This incredible relocation took 11 DAYS to finish as the pace needed to move the building safely was about one foot per hour.

Lighthouse Moved From Cliff

The Belle Tout Lighthouse in East Sussex, England was a scary 12 feet from the edge of a rapidly eroding cliff. To preserve this building which has stood as a beacon to keep ships safe since the early 1800s, engineers working on the moving project set up a system of lubricated beams and using hydraulic jacks, pushed this 850 ton lighthouse inland about 56 feet.

 Rosa Parks House Moved to Berlin from Detroit

Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks’ Detroit home was moved to Berlin to save it from demolition. Local teams in Detroit took apart the house and then shipped it to Berlin where it was rebuilt by hand. This house has a loose Rhode Island connection as Brown University was set to have the house moved to Providence but then scrapped these plans because of a dispute.

Yin Yu Tang House at the Peabody Essex Museum

To round out our list, the Yin Yu Tang building moved from China to Salem, MA is open as a museum exhibit. This late 18th century home represents an average family home from China during this period. The move was a painstaking process with roof tiles, wall panels,  beams, and other pieces catalogued, crated, and loaded into containers only to have the reverse process begin after the 13000 mile trip to Massachusetts. All pieces were unpacked to be reassembled by the carpenters who took it apart in China.

While Eastman Building Movers were not involved in these historic moves, we understand the precision and attention to detail that goes into each move. These complicated moves speak to the expertise that we all have as building movers. Contact us today at 401-885-4216 to start your building moving project.