MASON CITY – A road will be closed, and a bridge built over a bridge, to move the Egloff House from 7th Street NE to its next home, located on East State Street.
City staff said today that North Carolina Avenue will be closed to traffic for an extended period of time beginning Thursday, August 6th. The street will be closed between 4th Street NE and 7th Street NE for approximately three weeks. The street is being closed during the preparation for and relocation of the Egloff House and garage.
In preparation for the house and garage move, a temporary structure will be assembled on and across the Carolina Avenue Bridge. The house and garage are expected to be moved across the assembly on August 17th and 18th. The assembly will then be removed and the street re-opened to traffic following inspection of the bridge and street.
Please keep us updated NIT. I’ve heard that they will begin to move the house next week. Pictures of the move would be great to see.
I love NIT’s innovative stories. People enjoy reading what you post. Please keep us updated on this. I want to know who’s paying for all of this! I’m all for architechtrual wonders in Mason City, but there aren’t many. At least on popular streets. It’s sad that they do all of this to move a house but I have yet to hear any money being spent on north side. What about all of those homes that looked amazing back in the day? Truly disappointed in our government. Who’s idea was this? I think we should take action.
This effort is being funded privately by a group of very generous citizens concerned about preservation of architectural treasures in Mason City. The city sold them the property for $1 and they stepped up and raised the costs of moving, land purchase, etc. privately. The need for North Side redevelopment is another issue entirely and agreed….. one that the city needs to get moving on.
Why couldn’t they have gone around? It may be a longer route, but then they wouldn’t have had the bridge to contend with.
If you read the report, you will find that the amount of problems greatly increased if the house was moved north then west or east. Most of them involved cutting off utilities to many homes. This was deemed unnecessary and a major inconvenience. The route over the bridge is more economical and convenient. As to an earlier poster who thought this was a terrible waste of resources and money, the move itself would cost somewhere between $160,000-250,000. That isn’t coming out of your pocket. The continuation of transforming Mason City into an architectural wonder spot should provide benefits for Mason City for years to come. A little inconvenience is a small price to pay.
Thank you for the clarification.
Waste of money. Tear it down section by section and rebuild it. Cheaper. The wealthy are strange spenders.
Homeless people but they’d rather spend money moving a big old house to be used as a museum rather than a functional home. I just love when the wealthy get so wealthy they lose track of the basics to focus on the fluff.
Here we go with Petey putting down people with money. Hey Petey, jealousy is a very ugly trait to have.
Is it just me, but all of this seems really extreme. Is this house really worth it? And who’s paying for all these resources to get it moved?
So they are building a bridge on top of a bridge?? did I read that right? I swear Mason City can be so foolish.
Yes. They are building a bridge over the bridge on Carolina Avenue. They will start putting it together Thursday, when they close the road to the public.
The bridge assembly will transfer the load of the house to the center pier and the abutments and take the load off the two arched spans. That’s the “bridge on the bridge.”
It seems like a terrible waste of resources and money. The real cost comes with the remodeling. Cheaper to build a replica.
This whole thing is a joke. This house is nothing special and not worth the trouble, money or risk. Dr. Armstrong made a bundle off the sale and then he moved.
Dr. and Mrs. Armstrong were actually paid less than what the appraised value of the house was.
Sounds like the possibility that everyone is losing money all along the route in this deal. I just hope the bridges hold up.
treacherous?
The city has taken extra steps to lay out all the liability should one or both bridges collapse and the Egloff house plunges into the river. That would be catastrophic and the people of Mason City could be on the hook to pay for it. I’d say that’s treacherous.
The house mover and their insurance company will bear the cost of repairing the bridge if it is damaged.
It will be interesting to see them make the turn.
It will be interesting.