1903 - Captain S.S. Brown's Mansion  |
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| How did they do it? | ||
Moving the Brown Mansion 168 feet up a sheer cliff "Probably the most difficult and dangerous job we ever undertook was the raising and moving of the residence of the late Capt. S.S. Brown, at Brown's Station, Pittsburgh in 1903. This was one of our first really big jobs, and it attracted considerable attention all over the country." "The house was three stories high, of brick, and 44 x 85 feet in size. It sat at the base of a steep, almost precipitous incline, a short distance back from the Monongahela River. Probably it had stood there for 75 years. But as it was directly in the pathway of the main lines of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, The house had to be torn down, or moved." "Captain Brown, the owner, was a wealthy coal operator, to whom the old residence had a great sentimental value. It had been built by his father, and the captain had been born and reared in it. In addition to all this, it was a fine old place. Artists had come from Europe to embellish its walls, work which of course would be destroyed forever if the old house had to come down." "We studied the situation, and finally concluded that it would be possible to raise the house to the top of the bank, though the height was a sheer 168 feet. Once at the top it would be necessary to move the house 500 feet inland." "You may be able to do it," agreed Captain Brown doubtfully; "but if you fail, I won't hold it against you." "Thirty-five men worked three months in the accomplishment of that operation. The bank was somewhat irregular, receding upward in a series of roughly outlined rock ledges. We worked from ledge to ledge, first raising the house by jacks, then cribbing it up, raising and cribbing again, until, at the level of the ledge above, we were able to slip the house onto it." "The main danger was in the character of the rock, which was treacherous. The least slipping or crumbling of the ledges under the unaccustomed weight would have meant disaster, and possibly the death of a number of men. But we proceeded cautiously, testing our way, and finally gained the top of the bank. From there it was an easy matter to move the house 500 feet back onto its new site... By many, this is regarded as the greatest feat of building-moving ever accomplished." The excerpts above were taken from the article interviewing John P. Eichleay, the third generation to lead the Eichleay organization, from The April American Magazine, Sherman Gwinn, 1925 Close Window |
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