The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22
LARGEST MOVING
 JOB ON RECORD Will Move Theatre 300 Feet
 and Turn IT WEIGHS $500 TONS One of the Most Difficult Undertak. ings in Architectural Engi.
 neering is Now On in
 New York.
From the New York Sun.

' ipih Nils NtW 1ofk sun.
 The Nontauk theatre in Brooklyn be- gan on Saturday it's overland journey of between POO and 300 feet to d new site and by yesterday noon it had gone P feet. IL had to be torn down or moved away to make room for the Flatbnsh avenue extension 1t is brick buildiner with q steel skeleton and weighs aboat S0CO tons The walls of the building are about 9e feet high Moving brick or stone buildings has been d frequent occurrence. put thls job is said to be the largest of the kind ever undertaken in this coun- try.
 The theatre had a lobby on Fulton street but the building itself backed up on Dekalb avenue in the rear The ex- tension of Flatbush avenue will go right through the site of the building as it stood. When it was condemned it was supposed generally that it would be torn down like all the other buildings in the path Of the new street. A fair price was paid for the structure. The owner of the building, the Realty Associate company. thought that it could be saved A new site was purchased to the east of the building. Several adjoining structures were also bought so as to give room for turn ing the building and moving 1t backward
 When it gets into it's new position the rear will be on Hudson avenue and the front on Flatbush avenue. and the cost of the theatre will be the moving expenses plus the purchase price of the new site, the new foundations and the renoVations. The cost of moving Will be S15,000. Fixing things up will probably cost as much more. It would cost fully $25O,000 to build new structure of it's kind on the site so that a handy little sum will be saved if the building gets slowed around safely.
 No Crack Showing.
 Thus far the moving has been done without a crack showing, and J. A. IVersen, the head of the contracting firm of Iversen, Gustatson 6, Co.,, which is doing the moving work, said he ex- pected to fnsh the job with the build ing in the same condition He thought he would be through about the first week In October.
 The first work done preparatory to moving was to destroy the lobby lead ing to Fulton street. Then holes were knocked in the foundations and steel l beams varying from 40 to 60 feet in length were pushed under it and built up inside laterally and transversely at intervals of about four feet. The,e were about GOO of these beams. repre- senting about 15,000 tons of steel. Be- heath these were laid railroad rails on wooden ties, much as a railroads rails rest, only the rails were not spiked down. Tn csc rails are about 30 feet long and lie four to six in group.
 The steel beams were braced with stout timbers and shoes about two feet square were built under them along the outer edg1 of the fuildng, at intervals of about four feet Under each of these shoes and resting upon tn groups of rails about a dozen steel rollers two inches in diam eter and two feet long were placed.
 Building lacked Up.
 When all this work was done the build ing was jacSed up q fraction of an inch all around, several hundreds of jacks be- ing used so that il cleared the founda- tion and rested on the new structure of beams, crossed in both directions, beneath whcih were the railroad rails on ties. Between the beams and the rails were the shoes. unGer which were the little rollers.
 The preparations for the rolling hay ing been completed, it was decided to make the first move on Saturday morning. A heavy string of timbers was stretched along DeKalb avenue and made secure by massive chains that ran far under the building. It would not be safe to pull such a building on the rollers because there is little to get hold of except the beams beneath, and these were not bound together It was necessary to push it. By exerting the pressure on the back of the building could be rolled forward an1 everJ beam left exactly as 1t was. Along tie string of timbers on DeKalb avenue twenty jackscrews in drums, hollow pieces of hardwood, were adjusted. A man with crowbar was stationed at each screw. The iaclscrews were all oiled up.
 When the time came to start MT. Iver- son blew whistle and every man gave one twist All the screws moved in unison 10 length of the band on the screw as il moved one-half turn over. Crowbars were taken out and readjustcd Another whistle was followed by another glide. So the building was inched along, about thirty men being employed to replace the rollers in front of each shoe as II passed oyer the rails ana had left the rollers, one after another behind It took about four hours to move the building twelve feet.
 Will Turn Building.
 The building will have to be moved about % feet further toward Fulton street in straight line, when sufficient room will have been obtained to turn it on it's center A surveyor will be called in to fix the center of the build ing. A red light will be hung from that point Almost the entire space beneath the building will be filled with rails. more than 300 of them being used.
 
 that each group is exactly at right an- gles to the light.
 Then more stringers will be called into play. The jackscrews will be back ed up against them. On one side these screws will push in one direction and on the other in exactly the opposite. and the result will be that the building will be turned around for nearly q half circle on it's pivot. This being ac- complished, the stringers and screws will be brought around to what is to be the front of the building and 1t will then be backed over to Hudson street. q distance of something like 50 feet
 Although moving the building is an ehpineering feat, no engineers are em- ploved in the work. Mir. 1Versen came here from Chicago in 1900. He had had fifteen years experience in moving huitding out there. He moved a dozen brick buildings in this city last year. He moves not so much by engineering as by experiences He knows when he has il building in proper shape to shove and how much Iron and steel is nee .essarV as well as blocking, to make inc movement safe. He said yester- day that he tn ought he could make on the average of about ten feet day in moving the theatre, and that there would be no mishaps. About htty men are employed on the job.
 MT. Iversen though the theatre ought to be ready for use some time next winter It will have a new facade and it's entrance will be only q few feet away from Fulton street and facing the new 100-foot wide thoroughfare which