Rees Coach House Moving on October 1st; Main House Scheduled for Early November

Rees Coach House Ready to Move on 10/1 (via Curbed Chi)

There has been a lot of interest in the moving of the historic Rees home in prep for the building of the DePaul arena.  Unfortunately it was slightly delayed.  We received notification yesterday about some developments (From the Metropolitan Pier and Expo Authority - MPEA - press release):

The three-story Harriet Rees House and its two-story coach house on the 2100 block of South Prairie Avenue moving one city block (400 feet) to 2017 S. Prairie Ave.

Currently, the coach house has been lifted from its foundation and loaded onto massive dollies in preparation for this move.

The coach house weighs 187 tons (374,000 pounds), and will be wheeled down Prairie Avenue to its new location. The coach house relocation—the first of two moves—provides an opportunity to see close-up what it will take to accomplish the highly anticipated move of the main house in early November. At almost three times longer, three times taller, and four times heavier than the coach house, the Rees House will be one of heaviest residential buildings ever moved in the United States.

The details:

WHEN and WHERE:
· 8am to 4pm, Wednesday, 1 October 2014 (Optimal viewing of the coach house move will occur between 8:00am and 12:00pm)
o 7:00am-7:30am: Construction crew members clear and prepare the street; security personnel secure the corners of Prairie and 21st and Prairie and Cullerton.
o 8am: Mounted on six automated dollies, the coach house begins moving slowly down Prairie Avenue.
o 12:30pm-4pm: The coach house reaches its final site and is positioned over its new slab foundation. · The move will start at 2110 S. Prairie Avenue and end at 2017 S. Prairie Avenue.

As more details emerge for the November move we will let you know.  Below is an image from Curbed Chicago of the actual Rees House preparing for the move: