I can only imagine the work involved in moving a cobblestone blacksmith shop!! Built before the Civil War, of stones and mortar, just imagine the weight and the fragility. Irondequoit is moving their cobblestone building on Monday. Read about it & see a photo here: http://www.mpnnow.com/news/x544084711/Big-move-for-blacksmith-shop-is-Monday
Then, get this guide to learn the secrets of cobblestone building: “Cobblestone Quest – Road Tours of new York’s Historic Buildings.”
As a young boy growing up in Irondequoit in the 1950’s, I can recall going many times to this cobblestone building with my father. In those years, probably as an out-growth of the blacksmith business, it was a place were small welding repair work could be obtained.
I am pleased to see it will be preserved at the Town Hall. I also have memories of seeing the ‘new town hall’ rising in the distance from across the truck farms as it was constructed in the 50’s.
I was at the moving of the blacksmith shop.
It took a lot of time to travel 2 miles to its new home.
It was 2 hours or so just to get it finally ready and onto Ridge Rd.
Of course the phone lines had to be raised and signal lights moved out of the way.
Traffic was disrupted and drivers, wanting to know why the road was blocked, couldn’t even see there was a building, with flashing police lights ahead of it, in the middle of the road 2 blocks ahead of them.
At one point a median had to be crossed to be in the right lane for clearance along the sides.
8 hours after its scheduled start time, it made it to the town hall property.
One of the movers said it was the most fragile building they had moved.
They finally jockeyed it close to its final position after another couple of hours of work.
They still have to get it into its final location.
It’s good that it will have a safe resting place from now on.