Ontario Hydro hired a company that specialized in moving houses to do this work for the Seaway. The company was Hartshorne Housemoving from New Jersey. They moved all the houses in the various towns affected by the Seaway.

The total number moved was in the hundreds. They used three basic types of machines.

For a small to medium sized house ... they used a housemover as shown here. It had a steel frame which was open at the rear, and had several winches around its perimeter. It had an earth mover type tractor for power and very large rubber tires.

Workmen would punch holes in the basement wall of the house to be moved. Large steel beams were dragged through the holes and placed under the house. This was done while the family still occupied the house.

On Moving Day the utilities would be disconnected. The housemover backed up to the house and surrounded it with its steel frame. Cables would be attached to the steel beams and the house winched free of its foundation.

A foundation was already awaiting the house at its new location along with the necessary openings for the steel beams to slide it into place. Often the move was a mile or less in distance, and only a few hours was required for the housemover to complete the job.

Utilities were reconnected and the family had a new address. Quite often, the family had breakfast in the morning at one address and dinner that night at a new one.

For larger houses too big to fit inside the housemover, several sets of dolly wheels were placed under the house and a combination of tractor truck & boom truck dragged the whole thing inch by inch to its new location.



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