Whole moves London's
Marble Arch (1847) was originally the entrance to the newly rebuilt
Buckingham Palace. Following the expansion of Buckingham Palace, it was dismantled and rebuilt at a location near
Hyde Park, with work being completed in 1851. In order to save a single tree,
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first President of the
Republic of Turkey, moved the future location of his summer house, the
Yalova Atatürk Mansion, four meters to the east in 1936. Between 12 October and 14 November 1930, the 8-story, 11,000 ton
Indiana Bell building, the headquarters of the Indiana Bell telecommunications company, was shifted 52 feet south, rotated 90 degrees, then another 100 feet west. The city's telephone operations continued uninterrupted during the course of the building's relocation. In the March of 1938 during Gorky street (now
Tverskaya Street) in Moscow reconstruction couple of residential buildings were moved on the right side to make street trice as wider. In 1939 Moscow City Council (
Mossovet) were moved backwards together with the basement. Some other buildings were moved as street reconstruction developed (most notably six apartment buildings were moved by 19 meters and historical Eye Surgery Clinic moved and rotated by 92 degrees in 1940). . In 1950 the Compania Telefónica de Mexico (Telephone Company of Mexico) building located in the city of Guadalajara was moved 11.8 meters without any interruption of telephone operations. Building weights 1,700 metric tons. The project started in May and ended in November 1950. The building movement itself took 5 days. Head of the project was Jorge Matute Remus, construction engineer and headmaster of the Universidad De Guadalajara at the time. In September 1959 a 280 metres tall guyed radio mast of Europe 1 longwave transmitter in Felsberg-Berus, Germany was moved 102 metres northwards in order to realize a better radiation pattern of the transmitter. This was perhaps the tallest object ever moved on land One of Europe's oldest dwelling houses in
Exeter, United Kingdom, was relocated in 1961 to make way for a
bypass road. The 15th century wooden framed building was moved on rails around up a 1:10 hill, and became known as
The House That Moved. The Cudecom Building in Bogotá, Colombia (Weight 7,000 Metric Tons, Distance Moved: 95 Feet); was moved in October 1974 using Steel Rollers. The 8 story building was moved westward to build an avenue. The move of the Cudecom Building was in the Guinness Book of World Records for 30 years. [http://www.michelinphotography.com/michelinphotography/Blog/Entries/2012/9/26_Moving_Cudecom_Day_1_-_6_Part_I.html Moving Cudecom Building Part 1 Moving Cudecom Building Part 2 The
Gem Theatre and
Century Theatre, both housed within the same building in
Detroit, were moved five blocks on wheels to its new location at 333 Madison Avenue on 16 October 1997, because of the development of the
Comerica Park area when it became home of the
Detroit Tigers. At a distance of it is the furthest known relocation of a sizable building setting a world record by Expert House Movers, LLC. Structure relocation was common in the 1980s in
Romania because of
Ceausescu's building projects. Many buildings, including churches and older apartment blocks used to be relocated using hydraulics. One of the most notable feats achieved was on 27 May 1987, when a whole apartment block weighing 7600 Tonnes was split in half and completely relocated, with people left inside, with no damage whatsoever. As of this day the building still stands, and it was one of the most challenging relocations in the whole world. Engineer
Eugeniu Iordachescu moved 29 buildings (from which 13 were churches) during his career. (https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutarea_cl%C4%83dirilor_%C8%99i_structurilor) As part of the
Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center development, the Shubert Theatre was moved between 9 February 1999 and 21 February 1999. The 2,638
tonne (2,596
short ton) building was moved three
city blocks and is the heaviest recorded building move done on wheels. The 850 tonne
Belle Tout Lighthouse was built in 1831 near the edge of the cliff on the next headland west from
Beachy Head,
East Sussex, England. It was moved more than further inland in 1999 due to cliff
erosion. It was pushed by four
hydraulic jacks along four steel and concrete beams to a new site that was designed specifically to allow for possible future relocations. In 1999, the tall, 2540-tonne
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was moved to protect it from being undermined by
beach erosion. When the
North Carolina lighthouse was built in 1870, it was over from the
sea, but by 1935 the beach had eroded and the waves were only away. Starting in 1930, many efforts to halt the erosion were attempted, including adding over a million cubic yards of loose sand, massive
sandbags, and steel and concrete walls. After nearly 70 years it became apparent that fighting the erosion was a never-ending battle, and the decision was made to move the lighthouse away from the sea. The 3,200-year-old
Statue of Ramesses II in
Cairo was moved on 25 August 2006 from
Ramses Square to a new
museum site. The
statue was slowly being damaged by
pollution and was in an area where it was difficult for people to visit. The move of the statue, which measures high and weighs around 83 tonnes (91 short tons) was broadcast live on Egyptian television. Transported whole on the back of two trucks, the statue had previously been cut into eight pieces when it was moved from its excavation site in the mid-1950s. In June 2008,
Hamilton Grange National Memorial, the 1802 home of
Alexander Hamilton in
New York City, was relocated from a cramped lot on Convent Avenue to a more spacious setting facing West 141st Street in nearby
St. Nicholas Park, where it is currently undergoing a complete
restoration. It is actually the second time the 298-ton mansion has been moved. In 1889, it was relocated from its original site on West 143rd Street to a church's property two blocks away. The Nathaniel Lieb House (1969), by architect
Robert Venturi, was moved by barge from
Long Beach Island, New Jersey to
Glen Cove, New York in 2009. In April 2013, due to construction works on Fuzuli Street the House of famous Baku millionaire, Isa bey Hajinski, in
Baku (
Azerbaijan), which was built in 1908, was moved 10 m to protect it as historical and architectural monument. The weight of this building is 18,000 tonnes. It was the heaviest building in the world ever moved. The William Walker House, built circa 1904, was relocated 500 feet when the new owner,
Thomas Tull, decided to preserve the home instead of demolishing it. The move took place in August 2016. The house was designed by architects
Longfellow, Alden & Harlow. On 21 December 2016 part of the
Belleview-Biltmore Hotel was relocated and placed on a new foundation where it will be converted into an inn with event space, an ice cream parlor, and a history room. Beginning in 1983,
Shipcarpenter Square in
Lewes, Delaware, is an historic residential development in which entire homes from centuries past were re-located to a common residential neighborhood. The development consists of approximately 40 homes that were relocated whole. File:Goal in Walnut Street Philadelphia Birch's views plate 24 (cropped).jpg|Moving a building,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1799 File:Marble Arch in London, spring 2013 (4).JPG|
Marble Arch in
London, England, moved from
Buckingham Palace to
Hyde Park in 1851 Image:Versetzung des alten Wohnhauses.jpg|Relocation of old
Villa Haux in
Ebingen,
Germany, 1907 File:Gem Theatre - Detroit Michigan.jpg|
Gem Theatre,
Detroit,
Michigan, moved 1997 File:USCGHatteras.jpg|
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, moved 1999 File:Hamilton Grange at St Nicholas Park.jpg|
Alexander Hamilton's house, "
The Grange", being installed in
St. Nicholas Park, 2008 Building on Fizuli Street 39 (3).JPG|House of Isa bey Hajinski in
Baku,
Azerbaijan, moved 2013 File:William-walker-house-relocation-edgeworth-pa.jpg|The William Walker House being moved in
Edgeworth, Pennsylvania (August 2016) File:Belleview-Biltmore-Hotel-Relocation.jpg|
Belleview-Biltmore Hotel being moved 230 feet on 21 December 2016 in
Belleair, Florida Reassembly moves The
Warder Mansion, the only surviving Washington, D.C. building by architect
H. H. Richardson, was saved from demolition in 1923 by
George Oakley Totten Jr. Totten bought the exterior stone – except the main doorway, which reportedly went to the
Smithsonian Institution – and much of the interior woodwork, and transported it, piece by piece, in his
Model T Ford. He reassembled the building about 1.5 miles north of its original site and converted it into an apartment house. In 1925, Thomas C. Williams Jr. bought a 15th-century
Tudor manor house,
Agecroft Hall, which stood by the
River Irwell in
Pendlebury, England. The hall was disassembled, crated and transported to
Richmond, Virginia, where it was reassembled as the centrepiece of a Tudor estate on the banks of the
James River. The 16th-century
Warwick Priory in
Warwick, England was bought by
Alexander and Virginia Weddell in 1926 and relocated in the same manner. Architect
Henry G. Morse oversaw both moves. He designed additions to the reassembled priory, inspired by
Sulgrave Manor and
Wormleighton Manor. The expanded building was renamed
Virginia House, and stands next door to Agecroft Hall. Newspaper magnate
William Randolph Hearst purchased and attempted to relocate two
Cistercian monasteries during his travels in
Spain, but neither was completed during his lifetime. The first was built about 1141 and found abandoned by Hearst in 1925. He purchased the ruin and attempted to ship it to his home in
California,
San Simeon. The crates, however, were detained by customs officials in
New York City, and due to his deteriorating finances during the
Great Depression, Hearst was unable to complete the shipment. The stones were purchased in 1951 and reassembled in
Florida as a tourist attraction. In 1964, the building was purchased by a local
Episcopal diocese and restored to its original purpose as the
Church of St. Bernard de Clairvaux.
Hearst's second attempt at relocating a monastery was in 1931 when he found the closed Santa Maria de Ovila monastery, built around 1200. He purchased the structure, disassembled it and successfully shipped it to
San Francisco, but was unable to rebuild the monastery. Hearst eventually gave the stones to the city of San Francisco, where they sat for decades in
Golden Gate Park. Eventually, some of the stones were acquired by the
Abbey of New Clairvaux in Vina, California, where they are currently being reconstructed; others are now being used as decorative accents in the
San Francisco Botanical Garden.
Abu Simbel is an
archaeological site comprising two massive rock
temples completed in 1244
BCE, on the western bank of the
Nile in southern
Egypt. Construction of the
Aswan High Dam would have submerged the temples beneath the waters of
Lake Nasser. In 1959, an international donation campaign began to save the monuments of
Nubia: the southernmost relics of this ancient human civilization. The salvage of the Abu Simbel temples began in 1964, and cost US$80 million. Between 1964 and 1968, the entire site was cut into large blocks, dismantled and reassembled in a new location – 65 m higher and 200 m back from the river, in what many consider one of the greatest feats of archaeological engineering. Today, thousands of tourists visit the temples daily. Guarded convoys of buses and cars depart twice a day from
Aswan, the nearest city. Many visitors also arrive by plane, at an airfield that was specially constructed for the temple complex. On 18 April 1968,
John Rennie's
London Bridge (which had replaced the original bridge in 1831) was sold to the American entrepreneur
Robert P. McCulloch of
McCulloch Oil for the sum of $2,460,000. The bridge was reconstructed at
Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and opened on 10 October 1971. Not all of the bridge was transported to America, as some were kept behind in lieu of tax duties. The version of London Bridge that was rebuilt at Lake Havasu consists of a concrete frame with stones from the old (but not the original) London Bridge used as cladding. It spans a
canal that leads from Lake Havasu to Thomson Bay, and forms the centrepiece of a
theme park in the English style, complete with
mock-Tudor shopping mall. The bridge has become one of
Arizona's biggest tourist attractions.
The Old Wellington Inn (1552) and Sinclair's Oyster Bar, two of
Manchester, England's oldest buildings, dating from the 16th century and 17th century respectively, had their foundations raised when the
Shambles Square marketplace was refurbished in the 1960s. They were in close proximity to the
1996 Manchester bombing. As part of the rebuilding, they were disassembled and moved 100 m north to the new Shambles Square, next to
Manchester Cathedral. Originally the two buildings comprised a single row, but they were rebuilt 90 degrees to each other and connected by new construction. The formerly
Grade-I Listed Murray House in
Hong Kong (built 1844) was dismantled in 1982 to make way for the
Bank of China Tower. It was rebuilt brick-by-brick at
Stanley in 2000. The relocation process, nonetheless, was said to have failed to meet 'the international standard of preservation'. Certain architectural features, such as the chimneys and stone columns were lost and were replaced with features taken from other contemporary buildings. Much of the structure, furthermore, was reconstructed to be held up by an added steel-and-concrete core that which was not representative of how it once existed. The Grade-I listed status has thus since been withdrawn. File:Warder House 1515 K St NW circa 1900.jpg|
Warder Mansion (1887), Washington, D.C., moved about 1.5 miles, 1923–25 File:Agecroft Hall.jpg|
Agecroft Hall (c. 1500), moved from
Pendlebury, England to
Richmond, Virginia, 1925–26 File:Cedar Grove Mansion.jpg|Cedar Grove (1746), moved from the
Frankford section of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to
Fairmount Park, 1926–28 File:Rocky Mills Mansion VA.jpeg|
Rocky Mills (c. 1750), moved from outside
Ashland, Virginia to Richmond, Virginia, 1928 File:St bernard de clairvaux church yard 2006.jpg|
Church of St. Bernard de Clairvaux (1133–41),
North Miami Beach, Florida. Disassembled in Spain, 1920s; reassembled in Florida, 1950s. File:Abusimbel.jpg|Reassembling the
Pharaoh Ramesses II statues at the
Great Temple of Abu Simbel, Egypt, late-1960s File:London Bridge, Lake Havasu, Arizona, 2003.jpg|London Bridge (1831), moved from
London, England to
Lake Havasu City, Arizona, 1968–71 File:林安泰古厝.jpg|
Lin An Tai Historical House (1756),
Taipei, Taiwan. Moved for highway construction in the 1990s. File:Old Shambles in 1904.jpg|
The Old Wellington Inn (1552) and
Shambles Square,
Manchester, England, moved 1999 ==Museum collections==