Historic Kalamazoo Landmark For Sale

Hoben House 304 Monroe Street

NARRATIVE OF THE MOVING DAY: HOBEN HOUSE Tuesday June 7, 2011 By Jaime Grant Director Arcus Center for Social Justice

MOVING DAY: HOBEN HOUSE Tuesday June 7, 2011 By Jaime Grant, Director Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Its 7:30 am at Academy and Monroe streets in Kalamazoo and theres a small circus of workers, neighbors, and amateur and official historians buzzing around the roped off intersection while various crews take down wires, uproot telephone poles, and trim branches from trees that overhand the street. Utility workers protect the cables, city workers denude the trees, and several men sporting Laraway & Sons House Moving tee-shirts lay wooden pallets and various interventions on the path to the lot just 100 yards away. One worker stands on the roof with a chainsaw and fashions a last minute bracket for the tall end of the chimney, which is likely to encounter trees on the way to its new home. Kalamazoo College facilities staffers, many of whom have worked inside the building that in a few nerve-wracking hours will no longer be in the colleges purview, look on. George (K 60) and Linda MacLeod, who live directly across from Hoben House on Monroe, have set up chairs for neighbors to set awhile and watch the festivities. The mood is not as buoyant as a tailgate, but there is anticipation, wonder and a little anxiety as the events unfold. All we need is a lemonade stand and some barbeque and wed have a party. 7:50 Finally, were ready to go. Two front end loaders hook up to the massive rigging upon which the house rests and three men actually remain under the carriage of the house to move pallets strategically and ease the way as the tractors pull the house off the lot a few painstaking feet at a time. The anxiety hitches up a notch with each front end loader pull of a few feet. Despite all of the technology that comes into play this morning including the laborious protection of the cables that run Internet to K students in the middle of their exam week! the process is amazingly low-tech. One imagines that the basic process of moving a house like this hasnt changed much in the last century. President of the College, Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran arrives at 8, coffee in hand, to chat with neighbors and share in the collective amazement. Joan Hawxhurst, director of the Center for Career and Professional Development arrives with Sweetwater doughnut holes and K College communications director James Van Sweden passes them around. Associate Provost and Chief Information Officer Greg Diment looks over the scene with both good humor and concern. No interruption of service is his mantra today. By 8:15, the house is nearly off the lot and the move from dirt to street will involve turning the house. A coffee cup perches on the edge of one of the steel girders in the rigging and it hasnt dropped off. Sitting at the edge of the MacLeods yard (some would say perilously close to the action) is Rebecca Joyce K 94 who lives in the neighborhood and is hanging out with her young sons. She says, This is great entertainment for my children (Simon, 7, and James and Lucas, 5). Their bus stop is on the corner, so weve checked the progress of change every day. Simons comment for the building move is: So cooool. But James finds it itchy! 8:30 The house is partially in the street now, its pitch precarious as one set of wheels still remains in the dirt on the lot. I stop to chat with Jody Laraway, wife of Tim Laraway, one of the men under the house. She reports that Laraway & Sons is a family business and her husband, brother-in-law, and nephew are all under the house. Her husband, Tim and his brother, Tom have been at this work for 30 years. She notes,

I dont come to all of the moves, just occasionally. Our daughter is out of school its exciting but stressful. In a good year, Laraway moves 60-70 houses sometimes they simply jack them up for foundation improvements. As Hoben House eases into the street around 8:45 am, Jody notes: Im always happy to see them on a new lot. Its possible that the most dangerous work may be over for Laraway today, but theres a lot more move ahead. President Wilson-Oyelaran moves off as the nine oclock hour approaches with the parting thought: Its exciting both the opportunity to preserve the house, and the opportunities the new building will provide. 9:35 The house is poised on a diagonal in the street; fully off the lot. Hoben House is officially not a part of the Kalamazoo College landscape anymore, but not yet ensconced in its new life with Gary and Cheryl Kuta, who procured the house gratis from the College, with a small grant to help move it, and will now commence a long renovation/preservation process on the new site. 9:50 The House has pivoted in the middle of the street so that its no longer on a diagonal and is ready to move forward. A reporter from WWMT-TV Channel 3 moves through the crowd and local radio station WKZO gets a live interview from yours truly. A photographer and a reporter from the Kalamazoo Gazette are also documenting the move. Faculty members looking on include former interim director of the ACSJL Carol Anderson, physics professor, Arthur Cole and new religion professor Taylor Petrey. I note to Arthur that theres physics going on here. But he declines to comment. At 10 am the house makes its first sprint down the block about 200 or 300 feet, but stops just as it reaches the old ash tree in front of Jim and Sheila Bridenstines stately Georgian at 218 Monroe. Some limbs were pruned from the street side of the tree this morning, but several branches remain in the way. Amazingly, the movers turn the house slightly as it glides down the block and there is cracking and pushing of branches high up but it clears the trunk and we stop for a bit more shearing before moving on. The tree retains healthy growth on the sidewalk side, throwing gracious shade in the hot morning. Neighbors note that the tree wont remain there long however; it is infested with emerald ash borers. I chat with Barry Ross, Kalamazoo College professor emeritus of music who lives in the neighborhood. Hes excited about the new Arcus Center. Its a real commitment on the part of the College. We talk a bit about his work at K and the upcoming schedule for the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, which he conducts. Neighbor D. Terry Williams, wearing a Western Michigan University shirt, stops and chats. He reports that he attended the community meeting during which the architect, Jeanne Gang, unveiled her teams design for the new building. Williams notes, The interior looks very warm and inviting but the exterior doesnt connect to the campus or the neighborhood. The thing thats always impressed me about the campus is that regardless of all the different styles, the campus look has been held together by the red brick. It all works together. I offer, And yet Hoben House is gold brick. He laughs -- And thats why its going away! Terry, who was involved in the process of building the theater at WMU while on the faculty, notes, I have worked with architects and have enjoyed the process of design; its an exciting process.

At this point, Zolton Cohen who lives in the West Main Hill neighborhood implores Terry and me to move. Weve hardly noticed, but we are chatting right up against the back edge of Hoben House. Cohen says, I used to work on a concrete flooring crew and Im a residential flooring contractor, so Ive seen a lot of moves. We are apparently too close for comfort at this point, and we move back up the hill in the MacLeods front yard. Zolton has lived in the neighborhood 23 years. Im really happy to see the house moving into the neighborhood and getting back on the tax rolls. 11:05 The house has moved past the Bridenstines and is angled toward its new home on Monroe. In its wake, Consumers Power starts to re-hang street lights that were removed on the front end and repost the telephone pole that was uprooted only an hour ago. There is constant, parallel choreography every step of the process. I move over to the Slow Food student house at 223 Monroe that looks out at Hoben Houses new home. Its one of seven Grove Houses that form an L to the south down Monroe St. and around the corner east onto Lovell. They take their collective name from The Grove, a woodsy, undeveloped campus area they share out their back doors. Built by President Hoben for College faculty in the 1930s, the Grove Houses now are theme houses organized by students according to social and political affinities. I find K students Ethan Slaboski, Max Jensen, Hanna Daly standing in front. Ethan says, This is impressive certainly. I think its cool. It makes me sad when anything old gets destroyed. I respect efforts to preserve. Looking at the gaping hole at South and Monroe, Hannah starts to joke What if they set it down the wrong way? We didnt want the door there! On a more serious note, Hannah adds: I think the older buildings on campus are the most beloved when parents come, I want to show them Humphrey House, not Hicks. So I think that this house staying in the neighborhood is a good thing. I thought it was impossible! Phyllis Marsh, K security guard says as she passes through, But theyre not going to be done at 11! More like 3. Associate Provost Greg Diment walks by and smiles -- no interruptions! He leaves with Provost Mickey McDonald at 11:20 as the house is being carefully pulled in front of its new address. At 11:25 cables that were dropped this morning are pulled up off the street and re-hung along Monroe by Ace Cable workers. Consumers and Ace workers have been working together, up and down in their buckets all morning. I imagine that power will soon be restored to the neighbors, who have been without it since around 7:15am. At 11:45, the house still sits in the street, but is nearly positioned as it will sit back on the lot. The front door looms over Monroe, and all of us standing around wonder when and how far back the house will be pushed into place on the lot? Two huge red steel girders span the big hole that has been dug for the foundation. Steel beams currently holding up the house will rest on these two beams. The foundation will be poured after the house has been placed on the site. When the foundation is ready, Hoben House will be jacked up, all the beams will be removed, and the jacks will lower the house onto the new foundation. Dick Carpenter, professor emeritus of Computer Science at K, walks by and speaks what is on everyones mind, I cant imagine how theyre going to get the house over the hole. I mean its all just sand, the whole thing could easily collapse.

12:15 A pause now in the action. Most of the moving crew has dispersed from the site of the building to take their lunch, and neighbors and College staff are slowly making their way back to their homes and desks; Kitty Momberg, office coordinator for English, Philosophy, and Religion departments notes: I was talking to one of the workmen earlier this morning; hes confident this will be an all-day job! Power is restored to the block, which surely comes as a relief to the many neighbors who have been plodding along in the heat of the hottest morning of the year without air conditioning. Two more Consumers Energy trucks have now pulled up to the work site. Two men are lifted up on cranes, one to the newly placed pole and another to a pre-existing pole on the Colleges property. A small pail of equipment falls about 15 feet from one crane and narrowly misses a Consumers Energy workman standing below. The noise level picks up again as Kalamazoo City workers distinguished by their orange shirts - grind up the recently severed tree branches into what will become mulch or woodchips. Everything here today seems to have a purpose or a re-purpose. 1:00 AT&T has arrived to chop up the old power line pole. That brings the total number of distinct work crews on this site up to five by my count, plus numerous workers from Ks Facilities Management team. FacMan personnel are positioned along the route to lend a hand to neighbors and other crews. Paul Manstrom, VP for FacMan, informs us that the plan of action calls for the two long, red beams presently lying across the large hole to be pulled and threaded underneath the elevated house. Then theyll use the hydraulic jacks of the rig to lift the house, allowing a new set of tiny wheels to be placed below the house. These will help ease Hoben House into place. Start time is undetermined, as the moving crew is still on a much-needed break. The Stop sign on South Street at Monroe is put back into place on the property, adjacent to a newly installed power line pole. Margaret Wiedenhoeft, associate director for the Colleges Center for International Programs, arrives and mentions that her five-year-old son, Oskar, was curious as to where there would be room for a garage on this new property. When asked why a garage would be necessary, Oskar noted, Thats where you put the lawn mower. Margaret replied, I dont think this house is going to have much of a lawn to mow! The Laraway crew begins to get back into position as the Charter and AT&T crews move off. The moving crew sets up rectangular stacked log structures under the rig; neighbors begin to regroup around the new address. 1:55 Short wooden beams form two jenga-like structures that hold up two metal springs positioned under a long metal beam. George MacLeod strikes up a conversation about the Arcus Center programming and practices. Upon hearing that one of the strategies of the Arcus Center is to engage people in dialogue with one another, he noted how much sense it made for the new building design to feature large open spaces. You wouldnt be able to create large dialogues in the old Hoben House, he noted, as the building is sub-divided into so many small rooms. George noted how remarkable it was that in all the weeks that this work crew has been together, hes not heard one argument or expletive from the workers. I am also struck by how well they communicate

and consider what it means to be a small family business and engage in such high risk, physical work together daily. All of the log structures appear to be in place now. The building has been lifted slightly, and the work crew pulls the large sets of wheels out from under the building. 2:45 Small sets of rollers are positioned under the first red beam. It is truly hard to believe that a set of rollers that small can support such a big structure. By 3:00, the crew finishes setting the first red beam, and the workers are now moving the log structures into position under the other set of large wheels to repeat the process Around 3:20, I chat with Cheryl Kuta, who has been a very unassuming presence throughout the day. Youd never know that this is essentially her show. The marshalling of all of these talents, resources and brute strength is meant to save this 87 year old house for her family and K College history. I introduce myself and she inquires about the various documentary processes going on. I offer to send her pictures and video and she notes that the restoration process for the house will take about five years. Now thats the kind of dedication and patience from which most social justice endeavors could really benefit. 3:30 The final red beam is painstakingly threaded under the house. Green steel beams on which the house rests will form the crisscross pattern that will hold the structure in place once it is rolled into place atop the excavation pit. All day long, weight has been carefully shifted from one side of the house to the other as its been shimmied out of its centuries old homestead, into the street, away from trees and public signage, and finally veered toward its final resting place. You come away from a day like this with a kind of sacred respect for the labor that has gone into building this neighborhood, and all of our communities, close in and far flung. There is terrible risk in the ways we construct and deconstruct our shelters and our gathering places physical and emotional. There are great material and spiritual costs. Social justice work mines these territories daily Stan Sochia was one of the onlookers who stayed through to the end of the long day. He explains that hes lived in Kalamazoo all his life, and drives by the spot almost every day. Stan said: Jon Strykers grandfather [a physician and founder of todays Stryker Corporation] was a super guy, he delivered most of my family, my brother and my sisters, and then he went on to specialize in orthopedics. Jonny used to live down the street on Monroe in an apartment building when he was small. I babysat for them once. Jon Stryker (K82) is founder of the Arcus Foundation, which has provided guidance and funding to launch the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Jon has also pledged the funds to build the Centers new home. 4:15 Its nearly go time. The red beams over which the house will roll are held up by these jenga-like wooden beam structures. I think really? Thats whats going to hold this massive structure in place? I have another fragile house of cards moment as I watch the workers move back and forth, after several exhausting hours, with purpose and an easy confidence. 5:00 The Hoben-Kuta House has achieved a miraculous slide into place, facilitated by the greasing of the steel beams with of all things, bars of Ivory soap. Jody Laraway let me know this morning that Ivory soap is more or less the secret weapon of house movers. The crew has pushed the house two and three

feet at a time, checking the levels and the progress in tiny increments, communicating with the ease and agility of people who know and trust each other well. Its been an amazing day, with Hoben House perched a good three feet higher than it will be when these dedicated people finish their work over the next several days and weeks as the foundation is poured and the house achieves its permanent new home. All of us at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership are grateful for the hard work and generosity of spirit that the Kalamazoo College and Kalamazoo communities -- especially the many talented workers and patient neighbors -- have brought to the day. View photos of the Hoben House move here. Check back to see a video. Learn more about Hoben House and the move, President Allan Hoben, the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, and Kalamazoo College in these recent news articles: Designs to be unveiled for Arcus Center for Social Justice; Kalamazoo College house to be relocated (Kalamazoo Gazette / May 15, 2011) Planned Kalamazoo College building to be 'distinctive' (Kalamazoo Gazette / May 17, 2011) Arcus design a bold statement? Architect's vision for justice center clashes with neighborhood homes, residents say (Kalamazoo Gazette / June 5, 2011) Viewpoint: Remembering Allan Hoben, president of Kalamazoo College and the man who built what became the Stryker Center (Kalamazoo Gazette / June 6, 2011) Prominent Kalamazoo College house moved to make room for Arcus Center for Social Justice (Kalamazoo Gazette / June 7, 2011) 32 photos of a 155-ton house being moved from Kalamazoo College's campus (Kalamazoo Gazette / June 7, 2011) House on the Move (WWMT-TV Ch. 3 / June 7, 2011) House on the Move II (WWMT-TV Ch. 3 / June 7, 2011)