Historic move

Moving into a new house is hard enough, but a metro family decided to move an entire home, the Goodholm Mansion, from the state fairgrounds.

Wednesday, September 10th 2008, 5:41 pm

By: News 9

News9.com

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Moving into a new house is hard enough, but a metro family decided to move an entire home, the Goodholm Mansion, from the state fairgrounds.

The Harris family owns a house moving company and now they own the historic mansion.

"Due to the cost and the time of the fairgrounds having to get it off there, we were pretty much their last chance to save the home and not get it demolished," Richard Harris said. "It's going to make a home to live in...for me and my wife."

Richard's wife, Elizabeth, said they are relocating the historic property to NE 23 and Westminster Road.

"We've moved houses for 20 years and this is the biggest we've moved so far," Elizabeth Harris said.

She said they plan to decorate the house with antiques, add more bathrooms, since there is only one, and set it up for tours, hopefully by next Christmas.

"Well, I'm glad they're going to do that, they're going to preserve it and they need to do that," said Lamarr Winn, who saw the house being moved. "When a house gets that old, it had so much character."

The mansion was disassembled into about six pieces. If Harris didn't own the house moving company, the job could have cost around $120,000.

Patrick LaFleur saw the house going down Classen Boulevard and NW 10 on Tuesday.

"I hope it gets back together," LaFleur said.

Jamie Jorchin also watched the complicated moving process. She couldn't believe it was a house she saw going down the street.

"I even saw the curtains on it still," Jorchin said.

Richard Harris said the house was moved for the first time in 1983, from downtown to the fairgrounds, to keep it from being torn down.

It is cited by the Oklahoma Historical Society as a historic landmark.

"We're proud to save a piece of Oklahoma's history," Richard Harris said.

The next big challenge is putting the home back together so they can live in it.

About 25 people from Harris House Moving were on hand Tuesday, as well as OG&E, traffic management and over 10 other companies to hold up wires and direct traffic during the moving process.