Shotgun house to get a new life after leaving cemetery
Moving day can be stressful for anyone, but try moving an entire historic home through narrow one-way streets in Old Town Key West to a new location.Streets must be blocked off and parked cars have to be moved. Wires and plumbing running from the home must be cut. All that before the home is jacked up, slipped onto a flatbed tractor-trailer, moved to its new location and gingerly placed on a foundation.
Such an ordeal involves issues that local plumber Barry Barroso Jr. knows all to well. He purchased a historic shotgun house at 819 Olivia St. from the city earlier this year, and he is moving it to his property a few blocks over on White Street. Barroso and the city have been working for months on the move, which is planned for Wednesday.
Barroso is moving the house to a vacant lot next to his family's plumbing business, Lower Keys Plumbing Inc. He plans to restore the home and, eventually, live in it, but he said that will be more than a year away. The home, which Barroso purchased for $500, replaces a home he removed from the site earlier this year.
"I love the neighborhood there," said Barroso, who now lives on Seidenberg Avenue.
The city has asked neighbors on Olivia Street between Windsor Lane and Frances Street to move their cars on Wednesday. The street must be clear from 5 a.m. until noon so a truck has room to maneuver. Traffic will not be allowed on Olivia while the 684-square-foot home is being moved.
The city bought the 1,271-square foot lot in June 2004 to expand the city cemetery. The city plans to construct a mausoleum in the same style as one next to the parcel, which will provide space for 100 burials, said city spokeswoman Alyson Crean.
Construction of the mausoleum is not scheduled for at least two years due to budget constraints.
Moving the house is the first phase of the project, Crean said. The city initially considered demolishing the home, but learned it could not do so because it is a historic structure. The home was built in 1891 in a neighborhood developed for cigar factory workers, Barroso said.
"I want to restore it to its original condition," he said. "The floors and walls are in great condition."
This is not the first home the city purchased to expand the cemetery. There are several houses in the cemetery on that side of Olivia Street, Crean said. The city also bought a house at 837 Olivia St. in 1995. That house was condemned in 2008 and removed. The 4,000-square-foot property also will be used for mausoleums, but not until after the 819 Olivia St. project is finished, Crean said. The city now has mausoleum space for roughly the next five to 10 years, she said.
"Adding another 100 spaces at 819 after a couple of years means that there will be burial space for even longer, especially since we have seen a trend away from burials to cremation, which could extend that time frame," she said.
Source: http://keysnews.com/node/33303
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