There are at least twenty-five structures in the Downtown Historic Area that have been moved at least once. The accompanying map shows a spiderweb of moving trails.
Moving a house seems so unlikely and yet, following Hurricane Florence, a number of historic houses in New Bern were jacked up to put them above the storm surge level. And as long as a building is jacked up, why not stuff some wheels under it and roll it away, for any one of a number of reasons.
A while back, the explanations used to be, “to save it.” There was a time when a lot of people felt that if a house hadn’t been moved, it really hadn’t been saved. A lot of the New Bern moves were because a property owner wanted to built something new, so gave the house away to someone who’d move it off the property.
A prime example is “LeRoy’s house;” it was moved by the NBPF from George Street to New Street, so Tabernacle Baptist Church could enlarge their parking lot. Known to old-timers by the name of the last pre-move owner, the house showed a pattern of growth, the result of the increasing affluence affluence of its African-American owner.
Next door to Leroy’s house is a dependency from a grand house on Broad Street. It was also moved to free up property for Tabernacle. While still on Broad, it had been enlarged to serve as a modest residence; it continues to serve that purpose today on New Street.
The Christian Science Reading Room to some, to others The Old Library, first stood on the NE corner of Broad and Middle. It was then moved to Middle. From thence it travelled again, to 517 Johnson Street.
The Smallwood-Howard house was moved to 209 Change Street so that the Larry I. Moore house could be built in the early twentieth century on E. Front Street. The remains of a cellar and a kitchen fireplace remain in the basement of the Moore house.
St. Cyprian’s Rectory, originally crammed on the point of Johnson and Queen Streets, was moved to 707 E. Front Street Green space now enhances St. Cyprian’s.
All of these structures now contribute to the Downtown Historic District. As the saying goes, the greenest house is the one already standing. New Bern has long contributed to the biggest re-cycling of all, re-cycling houses.
by Richard Parsons
New Bern Preservation Foundation, Inc.
www.newbernpf.org • info@newbernpf.org • 252.633.6448