VIDEO: Moving Day: Getting the Clark House Ready for Its Trip

Belmont Historic District Commission Chairman Micheal Smith arrived on Tuesday to the Thomas Clark House on Common Street Tuesday morning to give Matt Murphy his contract.

And unlike most legal documents, the this one was straight forward: move the 250-year-old structure a half mile down Common onto Concord Avenue and deliver it to a location adjacent to the Skip Viglirolo Skating Rink.

Piece of cake.

For Murphy, who has owned Admiral Building Movers, Inc. of Goffstown, NH, for the past 35 years, transporting the circa-1760 historic building will be one of eight he will do this year.  

While most of his work is taking recently-built structures and moving them within a lot, he does have experience in taking older buildings to new locations.

"It takes a lot of steel beams to create a platform for it to rest on," said Murphy.

"Then we place the entire building on rollers and place it on the trailer," he said.

He said the critical time for the move is the very beginning, as it's eased off the site and onto the road to begin its slow – Murphy calls it a "walking pace" – trip on two of the busiest byways in town. 

"Then its just removing branches along the way to we don't lose the chimney," he said.

Belmont Police has not released when the move will take place or a plan for closing streets. 

Due to its age, you can expect minor damage occurring such as cracking plaster walls but "this seems to be fairly straight forward," said Murphy.