NORWAY — The Gingerbread House took a step closer to its final resting spot Tuesday, but is still 25 feet shy of its goal.
Steve Merry of James Merry Building Movers said Tuesday that the building has to be pulled forward another 25 feet to stakes marking where the tower of the building will sit.
One hurdle was cleared Tuesday morning when Merry took a welding torch and sliced a steel girder near the center of the house, cutting off the end so the building could clear a guy wire without having Central Maine Power return to move it. The house is still on a flatbed.
Steve, his father Jim and his brother Jason have spent the last two days inching the building into its final site near the dam on Penneseewassee Stream, moving the massive sets of double wheels inward and outward in order to direct the building into place.
The building was moved from its former site about 950 feet down Main Street behind the Sun Media complex on Thursday, then pulled off the street early Friday evening, but left on its wheels.
The next step once it’s in place is to put a foundation under the building. Downtown Norway President Andrea Burns said the Friends of the Gingerbread House have already contracted to have a foundation immediately put under it.
C’s Inc., a real estate holding company affiliated with Sun Media Group — publishers of the Sun Journal and Advertiser-Democrat — agreed late in 2008 to delay demolition of the 1851 historic home if anyone could successfully figure out a way to move the massive house off site.
The volunteer group hopes to restore the building through private donations and will eventually decide how to use the building.
ldixon@sunjournal.com
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- Steve Merry, left, with his brother Jason, uses a welding torch to cut a steel beam that was in the way of a utility guy wire as the Gingerbread House inched forward to its final resting place Tuesday. The tires on the flatbed were turned to help get the back section of the house in the right place.
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- The Gingerbread House has to be moved another 25 feet to get to its final resting place. The tower will rest where the orange stakes are near the road.
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