By Sheldon S. Shafer
The stone and brick facade of the historic Heigold House, which has inscriptions dating to the Civil War, is being moved from the riverfront to a spot on nearby Frankfort Avenue.
Edwards Moving & Rigging of Simpsonville has begun preparations to move the 70,000-pound structure that is 26 feet high and 35 feet wide. It probably will be moved next week to a temporary spot and then to a permanent site on Frankfort by early summer, officials said.
“Whenever you have a solid masonry structure with no supporting walls or roof to tie everything together, it’s different,” company president Mark Edwards said.
“But we have moved structures similar to this, and we think we can do it without any problems.”
The two-story facade has stood for two generations off River Road near the Louisville Municipal Boat Harbor. The area where it stands is being developed as the $200 million RiverPark Place housing project by the Poe Cos.
The Heigold facade is a riverside landmark and sits just west of another historic structure, the Paget House, which is intact and will be incorporated into RiverPark Place.
The Waterfront Development Corp., which oversees riverfront revitalization efforts, is using a $530,000 federal grant to move the Heigold facade and to widen about 300 feet of Frankfort Avenue south of River Road from two to four lanes. The facade will rest in the median of the new four-lane section of Frankfort adjacent to the Sea Ray of Louisville boat dealership.
The facade will serve as an entryway to the Butchertown neighborhood.
The neighborhood’s association, which recommended the relocation of the structure, has a logo featuring the Heigold facade, President Jim Segrest said.
The facade’s new site will “indicate that you are going into a historic district. It says all kinds of things about Butchertown and the early people who came here, especially those who were immigrants, and it reflects their desire to respect their nationalism while being Americans,” he said.
According to the Encyclopedia of Louisville, Christian Heigold, a German immigrant and stonecutter, came to Louisville before 1850.
He built a home near the river in an area called the Point near what’s now Butchertown. It was erected around the time of the Civil War. Heigold carved into the stone facade patriotic inscriptions and busts of some notable Americans, including one of George Washington. Heigold died in 1865.
The city bought the house in 1953 to expand a dump. Louisville Mayor Charles Farnsley ensured that the facade was saved and in 1955 had it moved to its current location at what was then Thruston Park, across from Towhead Island.
Clinton Deckard, the waterfront project manager, said Edwards Moving is an expert in relocating and salvaging historic properties.
The facade’s foundation has been dug out and the structure braced.
A hydraulic jack will raise the facade five feet so large beams can be slipped through its lower foundation and four self-propelled dollies will be put under it.
“It’s like putting four little remote-control cars under each corner” of the structure, Edwards said.
The dollies will then slowly move the structure several hundred yards to a nearby Waterfront Park parking lot to await transfer to Frankfort Avenue.
Before it can be moved to its final resting place, the short stretch of Frankfort will be widened to four lanes near River Road and a sewer line will be put in, Deckard said.