Written by I was with a small group of friends and family as the Wietzel house left Tukwila, for its trip to Renton and ultimately Seward Park (see blog below).
Thanks to Damian Wilson for taking these great pictures!
About the author
Hi, I’m Randy Corman. Welcome to my blog! I served on Renton City Council for 28 years, 1994-2021, with six years as Renton Council President. I’m also a mechanical engineer and manager, and worked for the Boeing Company for 33 years, from 1984- 2017. My wife and I have five kids and five grandkids, and we all live in Renton. I’ve kept this blog for 17 years, and get thousands of readers each month. Please share your feedback, ideas, and opinions in the comments.
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Recent Posts
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- Response to the Mayor’s statement on the Airport, with links to the facts and source data
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Recent Comments
- Randy Corman on Renton makes missteps as landlord while considering stricter rules for landlords
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I have video I’ll put onto YouTube soon. I must have just missed your group. I got the house traveling across the bridge in Kent spanning the RR tracks.
If I have the energy, I may get to Renton at Fred Meyer and/or the Airport too.
Great! Please give us the Youtube link in a comment when you have it loaded, if you don’t mind!
Thanks!
Randy
Almost ran into it!
Just got back from Christmas last night and was about to turn the corner from 196th to 72nd Ave and almost ran into you guys LOL!
Funny thing, I had noticed the construction crews working on the house several weeks ago and wasn’t sure if they were fixing it up or getting ready to tear it down…later on I saw them jacking it up in preparation for the move and was relieved. Couldn’t have been more surprised to actually seeing it being moved! Kudos for saving it!!
Do you know when (or where) the National Geographic episode will air? Saw mention of this on today’s morning news…as a matter of fact, there’s a fantastic shot which clearly shows my employer’s company logo (American Pile Driving Equipment in Kent) and I know he’d love to get a copy of that. Thanks!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vCj2j5hVYSE
How very cool!
House Moving is clicking something somewhere far away in my memory. Or I read about it as a kid and it felt real. ..
But awesome pix! keep us updated as to NG’s show. I hope it’s not on cable!
Cat
I’m using that icon until NYE!! I got a late start!!
thats very cool
Saving a wonderful piece of history
Thank you so much for saving that beautiful house. I wish more people would save rather than destroy things from our past. Of course, houses were made better 99 years ago!
Re: Saving a wonderful piece of history
It’s hard – we have a 190x built house in downtown Renton, and while we’ll keep it for the next 30 years, I don’t think it will survive when all the neighboring properties turn into condos.
There’s some nice older houses in downtown Vancouver – but the never see the sun – they’re nestled in apartment canyons.
As our house is also an investment, I don’t see how we could look our children in the eye and say – Sorry, you don’t get to go to college, but we going to save an old house.
Tough choices.
Re: Owners of this beautiful saved house…
Hello All,
I wanted to thank all of you that came out to watch the Weitzel House move. My name is Tawny Davis and my husband Ian Wilson and I moved this house last weekend. I am touched by all the people that have contacted us to tell us that they believe in what we did.
Although it was complicated and not inexpensive – I think that more houses could benefit from this method of “recycling”. I wanted to respond to the Renton posting- Should you ever be faced with the choice of selling your property to a developer (and taking a risk that it will be knocked down to make way for condos) or not selling your house at all- the Nickel Bros House Moving Company or myself would be glad to talk to you and possibly help you to save the house. It might also be an option- depending on how valuable your land is- for someone to sell their land and use the profit to buy other land and move their house out of harms way. It depends on several variables.
If anyone has any questions or you know of a house that needs saving- shoot me an email: tawnydavis@hotmail.com. Thanks again for your support.
Re: Owners of this beautiful saved house…
Hi Tawny, been meaning to e-mail you. Add my thanks to the list! Can’t help but wonder if some Federal or State funds might be made available for this “ultimate recycling”, perhaps something along the lines of preservation of historical interest or whatever the bureaucrat-speak may be.
Maybe even some sort of coordinated effort with a large corporation wishing to benefit from the warm-fuzzy publicity.
Re: Owners of this beautiful saved house…
Hi chmc-
It would be really great if something like that existed. I checked around with some locale businesses before the move to see if they would “sponsor” the house move- in exchange for putting a banner on the house- since there was going to alot of publicity for the event. Unfortunately, no takers! I have been putting alot of thought into whether there is assistance on helping save more houses like this- like a gov. grant. If anyone has ever heard of anything- please pass it on to me. Thanks for the encouragement! T
Re: Owners of this beautiful saved house…
This is my family home. It is wonderful to see it saved. Over the years I spent may days staying with my grandmother in this house. Unfortunately there only four direct descendants left alive today.
Thank you for the wonderful pictures and memories.
Re: Owners of this beautiful saved house…
That’s too kool that a family member found this site and posted! Am so happy for your learning of the happy fate of your former home.
MSBC has an article posted about moving houses, and of course this one is featured: http://realestate.msn.com/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=6062083&imageindex=3
Here is more about Orillia, WA – Weitzels
https://stevenschwarz.wordpress.com/orillia/