Relocation attempt proves disastrous for vintage home

A historic home from West Vancouver, B.C., was destroyed Monday night during a move designed to save the house from demolition.

According to witnesses, the 180-ton Tudor house, known as the Wiley House, slipped off a barge ramp while it was being transported to a new site on Lopez Island.

It was an absolutely devastating situation, the kind "that makes you physically sick," said Rick Picard, sales representative for the movers, Vancouver-based Nickel Bros. House Moving Ltd., who had worked four months on the project.

The house was on the West Vancouver Heritage Inventory, which registers historic structures. The house and property were bought by a developer who sought to preserve the structure by selling and moving it.

It was removed from its foundations Thursday in West Vancouver and placed aboard the barge in a secluded cove near Vancouver Island awaiting transplant.

Three tugs helped to guide and position the house-bearing barge into Lopez Island's Fisherman Bay during high tide Monday night. Once the barge was secure, the house was to be put on a truck and carried to its new home.

"It appeared that the pilings started sinking on the port side," said Rob Miesen, fire chief for San Juan County Fire District 4 on Lopez Island.

Movers tried to stabilize the sinking side with plywood planks but were unsuccessful. When they attempted to pull the house back onto the barge, part of the house tipped over and broke. Tugs pulled the barge out, and the wreckage of the house was contained within a boom by the Island Oil Spill Association.

The house, a 3,100-square-foot, two-story, classic Tudor heritage revival home built in 1937, had leaded-glass windows, beamed ceilings, hardwood floors and wooden, latched doors.

"It was a beauty," said Picard.

House-hauling is not uncommon in the San Juan Islands, where it is often cheaper to barge in a home than to build one from scratch. Homes similar to the one that went into the water have been valued at as little as $90,000, moving costs included, Picard said.

"The San Juans have been a little hotbed for us because people are getting three times the house for the price," said Picard, who added that the incident was the company's first accident in more than 40 years. Nickel Bros. moves about 100 homes a year.

"They're top-notch movers," said Joseph McKenna-Smith, director of the San Juan County Permit Center, at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. "It was just an accident." The house was purchased in a joint-family venture and was to be a summer getaway.

"It's a shame," said Picard.

Sarah Anne Wright: 206-464-2752 or swright@seattletimes.com