Wheaton Mansion On The Move
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The house of Seven Gables, a 120-year-old mansion in Wheaton, was moved about 300 yards Monday, saving it from the wrecking ball.
The Seven Gables Mansion was the crown in the jewel of what used to be the Chicago Golf Club "Colony" in Wheaton at the turn of the last century.
It was built in 1897 and designed by Jarvis Hunt.
The land was sold to a developer, and just this year, the developer agreed to give the mansion to whoever would move it.
Nancy Flannery, chair of the Wheaton Historic Commission, watched as the whole thing inched along to a new place.
"Seven Gables is huge. I believe it's 10,000-sq. ft. It's three stories, it's brick, it weighs a lot, and they moved that house. And when they moved it by, you could see -- it was so smooth and so level. The curtains didn't even wiggle in the window," Flannery said.
The people who paid for moving it, Bob Goldsborough and his wife, are the new owners of the house.
And Goldsborough told WBBM the house "can be updated without costing an arm and a leg." Furthermore, he says, "it can be used for another 120 years."
"My wife and I thought if there's some way we could save this one, it would be something the entire community could appreciate, including the people who are going to eventually live around this house, too," Goldsborough said.