Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Amherst House Move – April 1960

The 1950s and 60s were a period of tremendous growth in Lorain County. That was the era in which shopping centers and new gas stations seemed to pop up everywhere.

Quite often it seems that one of these new businesses was interested in a prime property on which an old house was sitting. In many cases, the house was not demolished (unlike today in demo-happy Lorain) – it was merely moved to another location.

Although I haven't found my "holy grail" shot of the old Neuman farmhouse being moved yet, I seem to find plenty of others. The article above – which appeared in the Chronicle-Telegram on April 1, 1960 – tells the story of a 1920 house being moved in Amherst that got hung up a little bit on the way.

Of course, being a curious (nosy) soul, I had to know where the house eventually ended up on Tenney Avenue in Amherst. Fortunately, the person who had the house moved actually lived in it after the move, so I had an address from the city directory to work with.

The house sits back from the street quite a distance compared to its neighbors.

The shots on the Lorain County Auditor website show the house in transition during a renovation. The Bing Maps aerial reveals that it turned out pretty nice.


I did drive over there during the weekend to snap a quick picture, but there were neighbors outside during both of my drive-bys. Since I didn't want to be hauled in by one of Amherst's finest as a suspicious character, I left without my desired shot. Oh well.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I looked at this house in 1999-2000 to purchase. I remember the interior of the house was very odd. The bedroom walls were removed which essentially made the entire house 3 rooms (kitchen, bath, living room). The living room had a bar the whole length of the house. It was almost as if they turned the house into a clubhouse for a biker club or something.