Historic home goes 'mobile'.

Byline: Andrea Damewood The Register-Guard

Lawn chairs were erected on sidewalks. Families snapped photos. Eugene police cleared the route. Little boys on bikes followed the scene for blocks. Traffic lights were stopped.

An impromptu Sunday parade?

Not exactly. But the spectacle of an entire historic two-story house lumbering up the hill on Chambers Street was so surreal that many onlookers most likely wouldn't have been shocked if a high school marching band had accompanied the hoopla.

"It's just something you don't see every day," neighbor Jan Pleich said. "It's exciting; I've never seen a house move before."

The large house, which its new owners say was built in the 1920s or '30s, began its day at 5:30 a.m., right where it had spent the past seven decades at 1570 High St.

But soon, it was on its way to new digs, hooked to a large truck.

The journey of about five miles to its resting place on the 1300 block of Crest Drive would take at least nine hours, with speeds topping out at between 3 and 5 mph.

"It's like being at the head of a parade," said lead driver Christy Settle, co-owner of Northwest Structural Movers, the Portland company charged with orchestrating the house's journey. "It's a lot of fun, especially seeing the kids, and even the adults."

But moving a house requires much more than hoisting it from its foundation onto steel dollies, attaching it to a truck and heading across town, she said.

City workers lifted cables and removed signals so the house, standing at least 23 feet high without a roof, could navigate the streets. Two arborists trimmed low-hanging branches. Representatives from Qwest, Comcast and the Eugene Water & Electric Board were on hand - at least 20 neighbors lost water temporarily. Eight hard-hatted employees walked alongside the blue-gray house with white trim and boarded windows.

Settle declined to say how much his company charged to move this particular house, but he said the bill is usually between $15,000 and $30,000 for most homes. Owners also must pay additional costs for the official entourage.

"The main reason people move homes is that it's more cost effective, with lumber prices the way they are," said Settle, whose company moves between 50 and 60 house each year throughout Oregon and Washington.

The new owners said they will not know if it was cheaper to move the house - formerly a rental property given to them by local philanthropist Rosaria Haugland - until all the bills come in.

But that was not the point.

Donna Pavelec had been searching for a historic home for her 73-year-old mother, Jarmila, an immigrant from Czechoslovakia.

"Our mother's a firm believer that you can never build it the way they did," Pavelec said. "It reminds her of a house where she and my father lived when they were first married."

The family says it hopes to restore the house to its original splendor.

Watching it graze tree branches provided a mixture of "excitement and anxiety," Pavelec said.

Jarmila Pavelec said she was "emotionally drained," and tearfully thanked Haugland for the donation of the home, which would have been demolished.

"She was happy the house goes into good hands, because she loves old things, like I do," Jarmila said, her rich, accented voice breaking. "She's the one who understand me and give me this great gift. My dream now is possible."