A GTA project manager says it’s not at all feasible to move a historic 3,000-square-foot coach house, which has been offered for free to anyone who can transport it from its downtown site.
The brick building at 119 Isabella St., near Bloor and Jarvis, has been used as the offices for fundraising and home care staff at Casey House, an HIV/AIDS treatment facility.
As part of a massive development project, the coach house is due to be demolished by Labour Day, but people in the neighbourhood have been asking whether the building can be moved instead.
The idea gained traction when Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam tweeted about it on Tuesday.
The house, which measures about 48 feet by 56 feet, was built in 1889 as part of one of the historic Jarvis mansions.
“We’re enormously proud that we’re redeveloping one of the original mansions,” Casey House CEO Stephanie Karapita said.
“We would love to keep the coach house but we are not able to care for the patients the way they need and keep the building. We require a floor plate to accommodate all in-patients on one floor.”
Greg McCulloch, project manager at Whitby-based Laurie McCulloch Building Moving, said there are too many factors working against the house.
“There’s no avenue for moving a complete historic home out of Toronto,” he told CityNews.ca.
“I think its fate has been sealed.”
McCulloch said it takes between three and five years to plan such a move, and it’s virtually impossible to transfer a home like that farther than two blocks, what with bridges and other obstacles.
Hoping to find an affordable lot in the heart of downtown that’s large enough for that house is unrealistic, he added.
McCulloch has five projects on the go, including a historic building currently taking up a lane of traffic on Blue Jays Way while a parking garage is built. Once construction is finished, the structure will be returned to its original site.
Danny Myette, owner of Danco House Raising & Moving, said generally moving a house entails loading it on a steel grid frame and then placing it on remote-controlled hydraulic dollies. The oil cushion in the hydraulic system ensures the house doesn’t crack. For long distances, a custom-made truck would be used to tow the house.
Danco temporarily moved the Richardson House at John and Adelaide streets and that cost about $200,000.
Casey House helps approximately 200 patients a year and Karapita says that number will double as the result of the new development.
