Carriage house moving away piece by piece

By Gina Morton
The Daily Item

July 26, 2008 06:31 am

— Jim Mauch has been taking apart a Lewisburg landmark piece by piece.
He plans to move it and reconstruct it at a new location -- 150 feet away.
Mauch and another man have been working since Monday to dissemble an old carriage house behind Carl Patten's home on South Third Street. It will then be rebuilt at another home on the same block. Mauch said Patten was told by his insurance company that if the carriage house was not repaired or removed, his property insurance would be canceled because of the deterioration on the north side of the structure.
The borough's Historic Area Review Board denied Patten's request to demolish the carriage house because of its architecture, but agreed to allow it to be moved to a new location.
"It's one of the few in the borough that is not seriously altered," Mauch said. "The south portion is still set up for horses. Most barns from the outside seem the same, but once you are inside, it is not that way."
Barbara Kalin, who has a property in the same block, said she is happy to take the structure for her property.
"She was looking for something like a garage," Mauch said, "and wanted one similar. This is a historical property and in good condition except for some rotting, so we will fix it for her and reassemble it. We will repair rotted things as it's taken down."
Mauch said in the end, it will look like it always has.
So the two men have been working long hours by hand since Monday because Mauch said using a lot of equipment would cause vibrations that wouldn't be good for the structure.
They hoped to have it completely down by Friday.
It will then be reassembled next summer. Meanwhile, the pieces will be stored at Kalin's home.
The building, estimated to date from about 1840, has an area for a milk cow and three stalls for horses.
"Most (homes) only had one or maybe two horses," Mauch said. "Either this person was boarding an extra horse for a neighbor or had a job that required delivery like milk or produce."
He said they will keep the southern portion of the structure as original as possible, with the trough, cattle area and feeding chutes.
"Sympathetic additions will be done so it can be used as a gardening shed," he said. "When you walk in, you will first think Oh my goodness, where are the animals at?'"‰"
He said the other side will likely hold a car.
The only difference will be placing the carriage house on a concrete foundation and installing a brick floor.
Mauch said he believes it will take about a month to reconstruct the building next summer.
"My primary focus is to use as much of the original structure as possible" Mauch said, "and if something cannot be saved for re-use, it will be saved as a pattern in order to obtain the best possible reproduction."

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