Wolfe House & Building Movers lifted the two-story building of the former train depot earlier this week in preparation for the move that’s anticipated to take four to six hours. They raised the building Wednesday morning in preparation for the move to its new location at the corner of Maple Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The city had constructed two foundations to accept the relocated buildings.
Before the move, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard will be shut down in both directions from Maple to Pershing avenues — about a 1,500-foot section — to accommodate the 1,000-plus-foot move north. Traffic coming from Pershing can still access southbound Martin Luther King Jr., and northbound MLK traffic will need to turn left onto Pershing.
Southbound traffic from High Street to MLK will have access to Maple Avenue, Engle said.
“There’s a lot of traffic that comes off of High Street that comes onto MLK to get into the county garage,” he said.
Pedestrians will have the ability to get a front-row view of the move, but just from the west side of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
“We’re going to keep the sidewalk closed on the east side of Martin Luther King Jr. so (the public) will not have access on that side,” Engle said. “We’ll have police officers assisting with crowd control.”
The building will travel along the northbound road and Engle said the movers are not concerned with pedestrian traffic to the west side of the street.
Hamilton officials have had eyes to save the former train depot since 2020 after CSX leaders announced their desire to demolish the historic structure that was once a stop for several U.S. presidents, including Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and both Roosevelts. After much debate, City Council eventually decided the relocation budget would not exceed $2 million.
It’s taken months to prepare for the move of the two buildings, including bracing the doors and windows, removing the floor, and demolishing the structure that connected the one-story and two-story buildings.
The two-story building is the first to move as it’s closest to the destination property. Then about five weeks later, at the end of January, the longer one-story building will be moved. This second move is also dependent on the ability to get the structure lifted, and if the weather cooperates.
“It’s a bigger building, so it’s going to take them longer to get it prepared for the move,” said Engle. “More steel, and more work associated with getting it ready.”
The same stretch of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard would be shut down for the second move, for likely the same length of time.
Once Wolfe House & Building Movers has the two-story building at the new location on Tuesday, they will work with LRT Restoration to complete securing the building to the new foundation. Engle said the masonry contractor is salvaging the brick beneath the walls that were lifted and will use them at the new location.
Once the structures are moved onto the new foundations, the buildings will be put into a “white box” condition where a restaurant, bar, or some other business could complete business-specific interior upgrades and occupy it.
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