Parade of Homes: 8 Houses to Move From Downtown

The houses, located at the intersection of Bloodworth and Martin streets, are resting on specially adapted flatbed trucks until the Saturday move.

Gordon Smith, the founder of Exploris museum, plans to develop four- to six-story apartment buildings on the site. Instead of bulldozing the old, working-class homes that now occupy the land, he decided to relocate them to empty lots a few blocks away and refurbish them.

City officials applaud the effort, noting most new housing downtown is in high-priced condominium projects, and more affordable housing is needed downtown.

Mayor Charles Meeker said restoring the old homes for rental or resale should spur other redevelopment in the neighborhood.

To accommodate the move, utility crews installed extensions on utility poles in the area to raise power lines out of the way.