The Cumberland Church building on Saturday afternoon. Unrelated question: How does the guy balance on that one-wheel electric personal mobility device?
If everything goes according to plan, the historic former Cumberland Church in Albany will be moved on Thursday, Sept. 2.
That’s the date that’s been announced for relocating the building from 401 Main St., a site it has occupied for 129 years, and shift it about a quarter-mile up Santiam Road to the corner of Santiam and Pine.
A nonprofit group of volunteers, the Cumberland Community Events Center, intends to renovate the building and operate it as, well, a venue for community events. (For more on this effort, including information on how you can help, go to the Cumberland website here.)
The group has acquired the vacant site from the city, and it intends to complete the purchase of the city-owned building some time before the scheduled move. (The money details are in previous Cumberland stories on this site. You can look them up.)
Emma Eaton, the president, told me Saturday her group had contracted with Emmert International to move the building for about $55,000. The company is headquartered in Clackamas and has experience moving big items and historic buildings, including the 5-million-pound Odd Fellows Hall in Salt Lake City.
For the Cumberland move, the steeple and some of the stained-glass windows will first be removed and put in storage for repairs.
The site at Santiam and Pine, near the Albany Skatepark and the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, will be excavated, as I understand it. A foundation will be added once the building sits there and renovations begin.
A former city councilman had been wondering whether the overhead structures at the railroad crossing on Santiam would make moving the building difficult or impossible. Eaton says Emmert figured out a way to partially bypass the crossing by going off the street and across a corner of the Habitat property.
She didn’t know why they picked a Thursday for the move, and she wasn’t sure what time of day the actual work would begin. This will be a spectacle not to be missed, and we’ll no doubt learn more about the details of the schedule before then. (hh)
The Cumberland’s steeple will be taken off for the move, then repaired and put back on.
Wow so it really is going to happen.
Huraugh. Time to make another donation.
Yay I’m so excited!
why is it being moved, and not renovated in place?
Good question. Several reasons, among them that there’s not enough parking for the envisioned use at the present location.
It would be interesting to know what steps will be taken to abate the lead loaded paint that will fall from the siding during the move.
Also I think you addressed the bell from the church but I am not sure. Is it stored at the City Shops?