The 139-year-old Victorian home cost $400k to move.
If you spent more than 30 seconds on social media this weekend, you heard about the ancient Victorian home that made a wild trip down the streets of San Francisco on Sunday.
The six-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot home was hoisted up from its original spot at 807 Franklin Street, and relocated to 635 Fulton Street. It crawled just over 6 blocks, followed by a parade of onlookers. Hoodline reported that the move took 8 years to plan, and the idea was twice rejected by the city.
The move required traffic signal arms to be moved, Muni lines to be taken down, and cars and other obstructions to be cleared out of the area.
The original Franklin Street location is meant to house a new apartment building, and the historic Victorian, plus a historic mortuary building on Fulton Street, will be turned into residential units. The move will make about 50-60 new residential units available, and will also allow for the historic home to be restored and saved.
This isn’t the first time a home has rolled down SF’s streets. Several others were moved in the 1970s as a part of one of the most flagrant acts of gentrification in the city’s history. Starting in the 1950s, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency displaced thousands of Black and Japanese residents to make room for white families in the Western Addition Neighborhood. They demolished over 2,500 other Victorian homes as “slum clearance,” but twelve were selected for relocation by the city and added to the National Register for Historic Places.
See more pictures of SF’s historic Victorian homes here.
[All images and videos: Courtesy of @christinamcneill via Instagram]