Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1895 — MOVING A TOWN. [ARTICLE]

MOVING A TOWN.

EVERY HOUSE TO BE CARTED AWAY ON WHEELS. The Prospective Half-Mlle Journey of a New York Village* - A Wholesale Eviction. The work of grading for the new village of Katonah will be begun in a few days about half a mile south of the present town of the same name in Westchester County. Whether the town of Katonah will be a new town six months from now or whether it will be the old town tn a ne w place is still an open question. Only one thing is certain, and that is that thirty days after May 1, 1895, Kate nali, if it exists, must not exist where it is. Commissioner Daly, of the Public Works Department, decided April 1 last that the proximity of the town to the water supply of New York was dangerous, and that it must go. A board of appraisers was appointed to award damages to the property-own-ers. The city of New York became owner of all the town with the exception of the Grand Army Hall and the houses of S. O. Arnold and S. B. Hoyt. Both Mr. Arnold and Mr. Hoyt had built houses on the outskirts of the village over 250 feet from the Cross River, which runs through the settlement. The Commissioner decided that they might stay, ns they were outside of the dead line. To nil the other property-owners, however, the order of eviction was law, and they were given until May 1, 18'15, to get out. Thirty days after that date the houses they occupy, and which now belong to the city, will be sold at public auction to the highest bidder. When the city took the houses last April, the rent question was not broached. For six months the owners lived in the premises unmolested. Last October, however, they were made to pay rent. They are now paying rent to the city for the property the city has taken from them, and up to date have not received the money due them for condemnation. Still they will get it, anti this fact is not worrying them nearly so much as the question Vow to move the town a half mile further south. "It’s a good thing. Push it along,” said a Katonah native yesterday when asked how the town was going to be moved, and that is what will have to be done. • With this idea in view, a syndicate composed of the village property owners has been formed, and twentylive acres of ground one-half mile south of the present town sight have been purchased. The ground has been surveyed and the grading will be started this week. After this is completed the people will wait until their houses are sold by the city, buy them in as old lumber, and then the village will take wheels and go south. There is a large quantity of work in sight for any fair-sized, healthy house-moving association that will guarantee to move the residences, stores and barns of Katonah over the Cross river to the new town site. Many people think it cannot be done. But in all well regulated villages there are a few minds who understand that necessity is the mother of invention, and these people have come forward with a feasible scheme for the moving. Their plan is to lay a temporary track such as is used in railroad construction work from the Harjem River Railroad to the house to be moved, jack the houses on to flat cars and pull them down to the new site. A temporary track and switch could also be constructed there, and the old house moved onto the new lot. Owing to the fact that the road to the new village is up and down hill, the old style of moving cannot be used, as the rollers would be liable to insist on going down hill instead of up. The moving of the village on flat cars seems the only way out of it, and this system cannot be used in some cases, notably that of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches, which are situated one-half mile from the railroad. A scheme to move the churches, however, has also been thought out. Instead of the railroad, it is proposed to jack the churches up ten feet, sufficient to drive a dozen horses or so under them, and by placing them on heavy stone-wagons braced with steel rails to cart them the distance. This plan, while appearing impossible to some of the villagers, is said to be practicable, and has been employed in the Southwest, where a not uncommon sight is to see a fourroom cottage on wheels going up the main street to take up its residence on a new fifty-foot lot its owner has traded for a span of mules. W&The new village of Katonah is to be up to date, and needs only a kiteshaped track to make it an ideal. It is expected that thirty days after the order of evacuation is given the new town will be running in full blast and the storekeepers doing busiuess in the same old way at the new stand. The town claims a population of 700. The magnitude of the undertaking can be better understood when it is known that between eighty and one hnndred houses will have to be moved, besides barns, stores and a couple of blacksmith shops, the railroad depot, three churches and a school-house.—[New York World.