Freed House to be cut, reassembled
July 30, 2008
By Emily Keller
The city will slice an old pioneer farmhouse from the 1890s in half in order to preserve it.
The City Council will pay BOLA Architecture and Planning up to $25,000 to cut the city-owned Freed House in half and then move and re-connect it. The company will also build the foundation for the house.
The council voted to sign a contract with the company at a July 21 meeting. The money will come from a $238,600 fund that was set aside in the 2007-2008 budget for the house’s relocation.
The Freed House was built in 1895 on land that Jacob Reard bought from the Northern Pacific Railroad Company for $380 five years before, said Helen Baxter, co-president of the Sammamish Heritage Society.
Richard Freed owned the home,and a chicken farm, from which eggs were shipped as far as New York City.
In its heyday the farm had 3,500 chickens laying up to 1,500 eggs per day, Baxter said.
In 1996, Freed sold the house to developer John Buchan Homes, Baxter said. In 2001, the city acquired the house for free when developers purchased the land beneath it, said Jessi Richardson, head of the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation.
The house was then moved to 212th Avenue Southeast and Southeast 20th Street, where it has sat on stilts for the past five years.
The architect will move the house to Southeast 4th Street and 225th Place Southeast in the Sammamish Commons, where it will take the place of the Brick House, an abandoned building containing asbestos that was demolished. This will be the first time the city will move a house.
Richardson said the city is unable to move the house in one piece because it has a minimum width of 30 feet and will not fit on local roads.
The house will most likely take a two-mile path down Southeast 20th Street, 228th Avenue Southeast and Southeast 4th Street.
The city is working with the architect and moving companies to determine where the house will be cut. Richardson said they plan to move the house by the spring of 2009.
Reporter Emily Keller can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or ekeller@isspress.com.
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