The Historical Kiggins House Move Is This Sunday

This photo was taken from the internet and is from The Columbian newspaper.

A bond was passed and they will be building a new library in an older part of town, right across the street from The Academy built by Mother Joseph, a historical figure here in the northwest.

Before they can build the library, many older houses on the block need to be torn down but one is saved from the chopping block because it is on the national historical register. As the sign shows, it is over 100 years old!

The rest of these shots are of the work in progress of the move. They aren't great photos, partly because of the fence surrounding the house. It is marvelous to see it up on wooden pillars (for lack of proper name) and just sitting there. I don't know where it is going to be moved to -- just glad they are saving it. Vancouver has a history of saving historical buildings.
If you enlarge photos, you can see the blocks of wood that have raised the house off its foundation. If you enlarge photos, you can see the blocks of wood that have raised the house off its foundation.

This is a side view which doesn't include the garage -- a piece of the house lower "roofing" fell off and is just sitting there. I hope they can restore it. . .


This view is from across the street to the east. The garage is in this photo from across the street. It will NOT be saved.


This view is from the north.

OK, in reading on the internet from The Columbian newspaper, I have found out that the delay was because of having to remove parking meters and other obstructions for the move 20 blocks to a downtown neighborhood. A private family have bought it and plan to restore it. They presently live in a home next door to where it will be placed. The garage will not be moved but torn down. Also, thieves, looking for copper, broke into it this week and stole some items that will cost a lot to replace but will be done if they don't recover things like the fireplace mantle. Below are three articles from our local newspaper, The Columbian, if you want to read more detail:




The house retains a high degree of integrity. It is a 2.5 story, Craftsman style home with narrow wooden bevel siding, a painted metal tile roof and a front gable with Tudor false half-timbering set in stucco.

John P. Kiggins
The Kiggins House is significant primarily through its association with one of the most dynamic and successful entrepreneurs, public office-holders and local proponents of growth in Vancouver’s history. John Phillip Kiggins, after discharge from the Army at Fort Vancouver, launched numerous successful businesses, but he is best remembered for construction and operation of movie theaters, one of which remains in operation. He was also a guiding force in the early years of the Fort Vancouver Restoration Committee.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

*******************************************

Zachary Kaufman/The Columbian
Workers prepare the Kiggins House, built in 1907, for Sunday’s planned move to the Arnada neighborhood. The building is among six on East Evergreen Boulevard that will be moved or razed to make way for the multiple-use Riverwest development, to include the new Vancouver Community Library.


Tuesday, May 13, 2008
By HOWARD BUCK, Columbian staff writer
It will be a slow, cautious journey for the Kiggins House this Sunday.
Starting about 6 a.m., movers will haul the residence built by former Mayor John P. Kiggins from its 101-year perch on East Evergreen Boulevard to a waiting lot in the Arnada neighborhood at 24th and H streets.
Eager to receive the building, listed on the National Historic Register in 1995, are Bruce and Judith Wood, who plan to make it their home.
The move will cost $85,000 but excavation and remodeling will cost nearly triple that, Bruce Wood said. The couple previously refurbished a house in Shumway and their current home, which is next door to the new site.
A crew began Monday to unearth the old home’s foundation. By Friday the house should be settled on several large dollies, ready to roll.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” said Keith Settle, head of Scappoose, Ore.-based Northwest Structural Moving, which was hired for the job.
“I’ll know for sure, later in the week. But it looks promising,” Settle said.
Easing the two-and-a-half story home about 18 city blocks — west, then jogging north and east — should take four to six hours, he said.
There could be brief, localized power outages as utility crews lift or lower overhead lines from harm’s way, Settle said.
Motorists on the busy 15th Street-Mill Plain Boulevard couplet could run into several minutes’ delay while the home slides by.
The house’s removal signals tangible start of work on the $160 million Riverwest project, destined to cover four city blocks at the southeast corner of Evergreen and C Street.
A new, 90,000-square foot Vancouver Community Library will rise over a public underground parking garage, close to Evergreen Boulevard. The centerpiece library could be finished by 2011.
Riverwest also will include 200 condominiums, 100,000 square feet of office space, a 65-room hotel, a restaurant and an outdoor area with a fireplace.
It will be late autumn or early 2009 before significant excavation work begins.
By fall, developer Killian Pacific expects four vacated homes that front Evergreen to be razed, said Steve Burdick, the firm’s director of development. Buildings used by the Carr Auto Group, which moved to northeast Vancouver in April, also will be demolished.
An exception is the white-brick, one-story studio designed and used by noted Vancouver architect Day W. Hilborn. Negotiations continue to move it to a site at Markle Avenue and West Mill Plain Boulevard.
The studio would hold offices of the Southwest Washington Community Land Trust, a nonprofit organization that helps provide housing to low- to moderate-income families.
Settle, 37, who launched his moving business 17 years ago, said relocating the brick home would present no unusual challenge.
“It just takes a little more steel, a little more care,” Settle said. “We’ve actually moved unreinforced brick, three-or four-story office buildings. What we tell our customers is: ‘If it can be built, it can be moved,’ ” he said.
Precaution is necessary to navigate Vancouver’s downtown, however. “It’s trickier; the streets are narrow. There are more mature trees to deal with,” Settle said.
Built in 1907, the Kiggins House is a front-gabled structure with a detached two-car garage, which will be razed. A prominent real estate developer, Kiggins apparently lived in the home until his death in 1941, at age 72. The property remained under family ownership until it was sold in 1994. Most recently it was used as offices.
Settle said he’s unfazed by handling the historic home, which will stretch to 35 feet high while on the dollies. Last summer, his company moved the registered Ladd Carriage House in downtown Portland for safekeeping during a tower construction project.
“Actually, some of these older ones are easier to work with than newer buildings. They have better lumber, to start with,” he said. “The joists are all straight-grained. No knots. And full-dimension lumber.”
Full-dimension lumber?
A century ago, a 2x4 beam actually measured 2 inches by 4 inches, and so is stronger, still, than today’s slimmed-down version, he said.
Howard Buck can be reached at 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.

*****

Moving day pushed back for Kiggins House

Zachary Kaufman/The Columbian
Workers prepare the Kiggins House, built in 1907, for Sunday’s planned move to the Arnada neighborhood. The building is among six on East Evergreen Boulevard that will be moved or razed to make way for the multiple-use Riverwest development, to include the new Vancouver Community Library.


Tuesday, May 13, 2008
By HOWARD BUCK, Columbian staff writer
After 101 years, what’s another couple of weeks?
The company that will transport the historic Kiggins House through central Vancouver has pushed the moving date back two weeks, to Sunday, June 1.
More advance work is needed on route obstacles, said Northwest Structural Moving officials, following a consultation Monday evening.
Some curbside parking meters must be moved, and more tree trimming is in order.
The house was built in 1907 by former Vancouver Mayor John P. Kiggins. The residence at 411 E. Evergreen Boulevard is destined for a new home at 24th and H streets, in the Arnada neighborhood.
Eager to receive the building, listed on the National Historic Register in 1995, are Bruce and Judith Wood, who plan to make it their home.
The move will cost $85,000 but excavation and remodeling will cost nearly triple that, Bruce Wood said. The couple previously refurbished a house in Shumway and their current home, which is next door to the new site.
A crew began Monday to unearth the old home’s foundation.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” said Keith Settle, head of Scappoose, Ore.-based Northwest Structural Moving, which was hired for the job.
Easing the two-and-a-half story home about 18 city blocks — west, then jogging north and east — should take four to six hours, he said.
There could be brief, localized power outages as utility crews lift or lower overhead lines from harm’s way, Settle said.
Motorists on the busy 15th Street-Mill Plain Boulevard couplet could run into several minutes’ delay while the home slides by.
The house’s removal signals tangible start of work on the $160 million Riverwest project, destined to cover four city blocks at the southeast corner of Evergreen and C Street.
A new, 90,000-square foot Vancouver Community Library will rise over a public underground parking garage, close to Evergreen Boulevard. The centerpiece library could be finished by 2011.
Riverwest also will include 200 condominiums, 100,000 square feet of office space, a 65-room hotel, a restaurant and an outdoor area with a fireplace.
It will be late autumn or early 2009 before significant excavation work begins.
By fall, developer Killian Pacific expects four vacated homes that front Evergreen to be razed, said Steve Burdick, the firm’s director of development. Buildings used by the Carr Auto Group, which moved to northeast Vancouver in April, also will be demolished.
An exception is the white-brick, one-story studio designed and used by noted Vancouver architect Day W. Hilborn. Negotiations continue to move it to a site at Markle Avenue and West Mill Plain Boulevard.
The studio would hold offices of the Southwest Washington Community Land Trust, a nonprofit organization that helps provide housing to low- to moderate-income families.
Settle, 37, who launched his moving business 17 years ago, said relocating the brick home would present no unusual challenge.
“It just takes a little more steel, a little more care,” Settle said. “We’ve actually moved unreinforced brick, three-or four-story office buildings. What we tell our customers is: ‘If it can be built, it can be moved,’ ” he said.
Precaution is necessary to navigate Vancouver’s downtown, however. “It’s trickier; the streets are narrow. There are more mature trees to deal with,” Settle said.
Built in 1907, the Kiggins House is a front-gabled structure with a detached two-car garage, which will be razed. A prominent real estate developer, Kiggins apparently lived in the home until his death in 1941, at age 72. The property remained under family ownership until it was sold in 1994. Most recently it was used as offices.
Settle said he’s unfazed by handling the historic home, which will stretch to 35 feet high while on the dollies. Last summer, his company moved the registered Ladd Carriage House in downtown Portland for safekeeping during a tower construction project.
“Actually, some of these older ones are easier to work with than newer buildings. They have better lumber, to start with,” he said. “The joists are all straight-grained. No knots. And full-dimension lumber.”
Full-dimension lumber?
A century ago, a 2x4 beam actually measured 2 inches by 4 inches, and so is stronger, still, than today’s slimmed-down version, he said.
Howard Buck can be reached at 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.
*****
Kiggins House Hit By Thieves, Stripped of Metals

Source: The Columbian
Publication date: May 20, 2008
By John Branton, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.
May 20--Metal thieves struck Sunday at the 101-year-old Kiggins House, built by a former Vancouver mayor, and ripped copper wiring from the home's walls and ceilings.
Bruce Wood, the owner of the house at 411 E. Evergreen Blvd., has been preparing to relocate it June 1, to a lot about a mile away in the Arnada neighborhood.
A moving company has excavated around the house and lifted it onto heavy steel beams for the move.
"I came here this morning at 8 o'clock and found the wood mantelpiece lying in the backyard," Wood said Monday.
The thieves, who may have been interrupted, left the mantelpiece but escaped with the fireplace door, made of brass-plated cast iron.
It's about 2 feet by 2 feet and depicts a standing angel, possibly holding a harp, with foliage behind her.
It may cost $20,000 to $30,000 to replace the jerked-out wiring, Wood said.
In response, Wood and his wife, Judith, spent Monday visiting antique and scrap metal buyers in the greater Portland area.
Old wiring might be tough to identify, but it's hoped someone will recognize the fireplace door.
The thieves "have no respect for history," said Bruce Wood, a former builder of new homes in Australia. "No respect for people's property. They'll make about $20 and do $20,000 damage."
Also stolen were a generator and tools.
Wood has won two Community Pride Design Awards for previous remodels of historic homes in Vancouver.
His current project is the 31/2-story house built in 1907 by John P. Kiggins, businessman and four-time mayor. When moved to 24th and H streets and remodeled, it will sit on a full basement and have eight bedrooms and five baths.
Including a moving fee of about $85,000, Wood expects the project to cost $300,000 or more.
The Kiggins House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It features high ceilings, dark woodwork and beveled-glass window panes.
It was built under the tenets of the American Craftsman style, which called for handmade homes and furnishings -- a reaction against assembly line products made in factories of the Industrial Revolution.
Such builders also stressed using local natural materials, and they used simple functional designs that were less ornate than Victorian styles of the time.
The house is being moved to make way for the $160 million Riverwest project, which will bring condos, office buildings, a hotel and restaurant and a new 90,000-square-foot Vancouver Community Library to a four-block area at Evergreen Boulevard and C Street.
Police detectives in Vancouver and Portland have told The Columbian that thieves, typically methamphetamine addicts, are stealing copper and other metals in Clark County and selling them in the Portland area.
That's because Oregon's law allows scrap buyers to pay cash on the day of the sale, police said.
Washington's law requires buyers to wait 10 days and mail sellers a check, a restriction that might discourage metal thieves, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Bruce Wood at 360-699-4429 or the Vancouver Police Department at 360-487-7400. Those who see metal thieves in action are asked to call 911.
John Branton covers crime and law enforcement. He can be reached at 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.