EVERETT — The historic Weyerhaeuser Building’s bags are packed and its trip is booked: After midnight on July 14, the 93-year-old house is scheduled to be trucked one mile to its new home in the Port of Everett’s Boxcar Park.
For now, the ornately-decorated building is waiting — seven and a half feet in the air. The house was jacked up in preparation for the move by work crews with the Nickel Brothers, the project’s Everett-based contractor. Forty-two jacks were used in unison to slowly and gently lift the wood building off its foundation.
“The jacking process is not a fast process,” said Brandon Whitaker, who is managing the project for the Port of Everett.
Workers are preparing the foundation at its destination, Boxcar Park, about a mile north of its current location at 1710 W Marine View Drive, near the Inn at Port Gardner and the port marina’s south docks. Moving the building is expected to cost $1.1 million.
Boxcar Park is a 2-acre open space being built just north of the Everett Yacht Club at the foot of 14th Street on the port’s central pier. It will cap the Port of Everett’s Waterfront Place Central project. The project is an ambitious plan to turn the former industrial area along the port’s waterfront into housing, shops, offices, restaurants, green space and other public amenities. The entire project is expected to cost $330 million, with most of that coming from private developers.
The Weyerhaeuser Building move will be the redevelopment’s first construction work, Whitaker said. Port workers and contractors have done substantial planning and design work in the past two years.
The building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, already has moved twice since it was built in 1923. Its first home was at Weyerhaeuser’s Mill A, near what is now the port’s South Terminal. In 1936, it was barged to the company’s Mill B on the Snohomish River. It remained there until 1984 when it was moved to its current location.
Weyerhaeuser used the building as office space and to show off its wood products.
In its new home, the building will offer event and meeting space, and serve as a backdrop for an adjacent outdoor venue.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dcatchpole.
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