Moving the Collins House

The Collins house, shown here, and its neighbor on Johnson St. were the site of the Wayland Christian Community on the UW-Madison campus for more than 50 years. The Wayland property has been sold to a developer to construct a 14 story apartment building. The proceeds of the sale will form the basis of an endowment to fund the campus ministry far into the future. The city has required that, of the two houses located there, the Collins house on Mills street be moved and preserved, since it has historical and architectural interest. The city refers to the house as the Conklin house since the son of an early Madison mayor lived there. The Wayland board gave the house the name, Collins House, in honor of the Rev. "Shorty" Collins, who served as the Baptist campus minister from 1928 to 1957.

Preparing the house for the move. The house is too large to move in one piece, so it is to be cut in half and moved in two pieces. The porches have been removed and the outside chimney is being dismantled.

The back half of the house was placed on a trailer and moved over next to Johnson St. When this photo was taken the front of the house was still on its foundation. (Photo courtesy of Rachel Hart.)

Another view of the two halves of the Collins house. The front half was then moved over next to the back half. (Photo courtesy of Rachel Hart)

The two halves together again (sort of).

Bird's eye view of the (former) Wayland properties. The excavation for the new building continued while the house sat there until it was time to move it to the new site.

Sunday, April 20, 8 p.m. It is moving time. Trucks have been hooked up to the two trailers.

The rear half of the house came out first. The houses will go to the east (to the right in this view), but the rear half needs to be turned so that highest part of the house is on the left as it goes down the street. This is because the way the city trimmed trees to allow the house to pass.

The rear of the house is coming out into the street and getting pointed in the right direction.

The house is now lined up, but the truck needs to be disconnected and reconnected to the other end of the trailer.

Attaching the truck to the other end. This process also required repositioning some of the wheels under the trailer; this task took about an hour so it is now quite dark and photography is getting to be difficult.
 

Finally, the rear half of the house headed down the street, with the front half coming off the lot and following along behind.  It was quite a procession as people followed the house to its new location. In Madison, people will use any excuse for a party.

A large number of photos of the procession can be found on the internet by googling "conklin house madison", or something similar.  This photo, courtesy of The Isthmus, is one of the better ones. The new owners of the house posted on YouTube a video of the house going by the capitol. 
 

The sight the next morning as the house was getting moved into its final location. The site is the 500 block of East Mifflin St.

The house in its final location. There is still a lot of work to be done, attaching it to the foundation, rejoining the two halves, rebuilding the porches, and reconstructing the interior. The house will be divided into four apartments.

The two Wayland houses are gone. Seeing the houses gone was a sad moment for many former residents of the Wayland Community. But the community was not about old houses; it was about people and relationships. As we learned at the Wayland celebration a couple of weeks ago, many enduring relationships started there, and new relationships among current students are still being started. The Wayland Community continues, albeit in a temporary location, until its future location is determined.

Come back to this web page in the fall of 2009 and I should have a picture of the new apartment building and the rebuilt Collins house. Rumor has it that a lounge in the new apartment building will be named after Shorty Collins and the address of the building will be 1022 W. Johnson, which was the address of the Wayland house on Johnson St. Remembering our heritage is important as we move into the future.