People Are Amazed And Stressed At Watching A 139-Year-Old Victorian House Get Moved Six Blocks

Few cities are as obsessed with protecting the architectural identity of their cityscape as San Francisco. It’s why even the brand new buildings in the city retain San Francisco’s iconic Victorian-inspired bay windows, and why someone in the city thought it would be cool to move a 139-year-old Victorian House six blocks from its original location rather than let it get destroyed. According to NBC News, The Englander House, one of the city’s many historic buildings, was moved from its original location of 807 Franklin St. to 635 Fulton St. this weekend, traveling through the dense streets of San Francisco at a pace of one mile per hour.

If you’ve spent any time in San Francisco you probably have exactly two thoughts: 1). Of course, this happened in San Francisco (LA would’ve just blown it up) and 2.) How?! San Francisco is built on over 40 hills, so how exactly does anyone manage to move a six-bedroom two-story 139-year-old house a quarter-mile across that kind of terrain?

Phil Joy oversaw the big move and told the San Francisco Chronicle that the whole process took years to plan and required 15 different city agencies to agree, and the removal of signs, trees, and other obstacles. The move cost the home’s owner $400,000 in moving costs and fees, which sounds surprisingly cheap to move an 80-foot-long house. A 48-unit, eight-story complex will be built on the house’s old site, and the Englander will be turned into a 17 unit building at its new location.

Check out a time-lapse of the move below as well as some alternate angles.