Joel Banner Baird

Free Press Staff Writer

WINOOSKI - Few shortcuts present themselves to the crews who are moving a 19th century house from the Onion City to the Queen City.

The intercity passage of a house associated for generations with the Cameron family starts Sunday morning, weather permitting, according to contractors. After a three-week layover in a gravel lot in Winooski, the house will inch uphill to its new home in Burlington's Old North End.

The soon-to-be vacated lot at East Allen Street and Abenaki Way is likely to become much more animated after this weekend: Construction will get underway on a 27-unit apartment building, developed by Williston-based Dagesse Company.

Progress at the site remained slow and steady on Wednesday. Crews under the direction of Monte Provencher, president of Bridport-based New England Building Movers, worked to stabilize the raised house.

Another crew sawed and pried the building’s distinctive dormer from the roof.

Left in place, the dormer would likely be damaged by trees en route to the house’s new home on Manhattan Drive, explained Don Nugent, a master carpenter from Starksboro.

When the severed dormer rejoins its mooring next month, Nugent added, the project will have achieved “recycling to the max.”

The house's new owner got the house for free, but had to pay more than $100,000 in moving costs, said project manager Nate Dagesse.

Plenty of logistical challenges will remain on the downtown 0.22-acre in downtown Winooski.

“It’s daunting,” he said Wednesday of the City Lights project. “It’s probably one of the most ambitious urban infill projects in Chittenden County.”

Traffic patterns will shift as moving and construction crews’ needs emerge, the City of Winooski has warned.

Abenaki Way was closed Wednesday. It will likely remain that way until Sunday, said John Audy the city’s director of code enforcement.

Thereafter, and for the year or so, the road will become a one-way, southbound street, Audy added.

Well before then, it's likely that the old Cameron House's new owner, Chris Khamnei, will have settled in at 395 Manhattan Drive.

This article was first posted online on July 27, 2016. Contact Joel Banner Baird at 802-660-1843 or joelbaird@freepressmedia.com.

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