The historic granary that has stood along the Bay of Sturgeon Bay for 116 years will soon move to a new location, and crews are hard at work to prepare the building for the event.
Jason Devooght, CEO of Devooght House and Building Movers says that, while his company has moved many old buildings, the stage of deterioration on the lower level of the granary makes this move particularly challenging.
As a solution, Devooght’s team is using metal braces to hold up the top half of the structure.
“Today (Wednesday) what we’re going to do is lift it up six inches with the Unified Hydraulic System,” he told Local Five. “Tomorrow we’re going to demo the first floor… and over the weekend we’re going to lower it down to a better working height.”
Once the top half of the building is ready, it will be moved across the Oregon Street Bridge to its new home.
The bottom half will be reconstructed at the new site.
Then the old building will begin a new life.
“They’re talking a couple options, I think they’re going to restore it back to what it was like and have tours and use it as basically as a historic granary looked like from that time, from a 1901 granary,” Devooght said.
