Published: October 04, 2009 12:37 am      

House on wheels

COMMERCE — For being 95 years old, a home on Mangum Street in Commerce turned out to be pretty nimble.

Rick and Kelly Nowlin of Greenville, the owners of the two-story wood frame residence, watched in anxious anticipation Wednesday afternoon as a crew of house movers shifted the home about 100 feet toward the back of the property at 2113 Mangum. They plan to repeat the process, but in reverse, in a few weeks.

“We’re going to clean this all up and put a good foundation under it, then move it back,” Kelly Nowlin said, adding purchasing the home in the first place was the fulfillment of a dream.

“My husband is a home builder and we’ve been married for 30 years,” Nowlin said. “For 30 years, I’ve always had a new home, but I’ve always wanted an old house to redo.”

Not only is it an older home, and a unique fixer-upper, but it is also one of the most historic houses in Commerce.

Nowlin researched the history of the residence and learned it was built in 1914 and originally belonged to John and Ella Knight.

“They came here in the 1800s and were some of the first to settle in Commerce,” she said.

Knight was president of the first bank in Commerce and was instrumental in bringing the railroad to town. Nowlin said Knight also donated some of the land on which Texas A&M University-Commerce now stands.

“Mainly, he was a farmer and rancher,” Nowlin said. “They had nine children and I’ve been able to talk to three of their grandchildren.”

The couple bought the house about six months ago as a project and spent most of the interim clearing the property.

Crews with Northcutt House Moving from Point spent several days lifting the home onto metal beams which rested on large tires. Wednesday, winches on two trucks pulled the house, while a winch on a truck at the front acted as a brake if necessary.

The workers conducted about a dozen “pulls”, moving the residence about 15 feet each time. Things were going perfectly, until it was discovered there had been a slight miscalculation, requiring the removal of about four feet of branches from a tree on the property before the move could be completed.

Members of the Nowlin’s family, along with several of the neighbors turned out to watch the move, while Nowlin took multiple photos to document the experience.

“It has been exciting and scary,” Nowlin said.