Picture courtesy of Wolfe House & Building Movers
If you were driving down Washington Street Wednesday, you may have noticed a historic brick townhouse being moved on beams and dollies.
The 1800s townhouse, at 802 N. Washington St. was moved by Wolfe House & Building Movers, LLC, a company that specializes in moving structures, particularly ones with historic significance.
Wolfe House Movers has worked on numerous projects around the country including in the DC metro area. Most notably in 2016, they moved the 140-year old Adas Israel Synagogue while an underground parking structure was built before moving it back in 2019, only 1,000 feet from its original location.
Wolfe House Movers is doing a similar project for 802 N. Washington St. The townhouse was moved to a temporary storage position 150 feet behind its original location while an underground parking garage and foundation for the new hotel are built. The home will then be moved back sometime in the spring to its new position, 20 feet from its original location. The townhouse will be incorporated into the new hotel building.
“There were several different aspects that made this somewhat unique,” explained Michael Brovont, who works with Wolfe House Movers.
“The fact that it is triple brick walls…walls are three bricks thick, it’s one of the more fragile types of construction. It’s not a big deal, but it takes quite a few beams, beams have to be heavier, you have to have more jacks, more dollies. It just adds a little complexity to the project, but it’s also something we do regularly.”
Its location right on a main street in Alexandria posed some working space issues and forced the company to close a few lanes of traffic during the move. The addition, the back of the townhouse posed another challenge because it had no space underneath, forcing them to excavate under it in order to get beams in place to move it.
The movement of the townhouse is part of a larger project to build a five-story hotel at the site of the Old Towne Motel (808 N. Washington St.) which was torn down earlier this year.
Wolfe House Movers won the bid to move the townhouse three years ago. Since then, the hotel project has been doing through the planning and permitting process. Preparation for moving the townhouse began in earnest less than a month ago.
Brovont said that the move went smoothly thanks to their extensive safety checks and backups. The townhouse weighed 430 tons and the move itself only took a of couple hours and was accomplished with small crew.
1 of 2
Picture courtesy of Wolfe House & Building Movers
2 of 2
Picture courtesy of Wolfe House & Building Movers
