SUCCESSFUL MOVING OF A LARGE HOTEL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6296, 21 January 1882, Page 7

SUCCESSFUL MOVING OF A LARGE HOTEL.

A large hotel in Boston, U.S., thoPelham, on Tremont and Boylston-streets, was lately moved a distance of 13ft. 10in., with a view of widening Tremont-street. The building is of freestone and brick, with frontages of 96ft. and 67ft., a basement and seven storeys, the total height above tramways used being 96ft. The weight was about 5,000 tons. The furniture was not disturbed during removal, nor were the occupants of the stores on the first floor and in some of the rooms, the various pipe connections being kept up with flexible tubes. Substantial stone andljrick foundations were made for iron rails and rollers, and the building was forced to its new position by means of 56 screws operated by hand against timbers arranged to uniformly distribute tho pressure against the building (which was firmly braced in the lower part). Two months and twenty dayo were occupied in preparation. The moving itself was begun on August 21 aad finished on August 25, but the actual time of moving was only 13 hours and 40 minutes. The greatest speed was two inches in four minutes. The hotel moved about one-eighth of an Inch at each quarter turn of the screws. The whole cost was about 530.000. This is said to be the largest building that has ever been moved, though larger have been raised (which is a much simpler and less risky operation). The complete success of the work appears from the fact that previous cracks in the building i were not changed, pieces of jiaper that haa been pasted over these not being affeoteaj ,