Baldwin Park isn't the only neighborhood with a sliced-in-half house.
Screen Grab Credit: Click Orlando
Tuesday a two story home in Baldwin Park was partially sliced in half from the tip of the pitched roof to the top of the second floor. No one was home at the time of the incident and no one was injured. According to Click Orlando, a crane owned by the company Beyel toppled over causing the gash. This is the second time one of its cranes toppled over since last year.
This may remind Daily City readers of the Capen House saga back in 2013.
Built in 1885 by one of Winter Park's founding citizens, the Capen House was placed on the city's historic register in 2011. A year later, the home went into foreclosure. The holder of the mortgage, SunTrust, got the City of Winter Park to remove the home's historic designation so the property could be sold to someone who wished to tear it down and built a new house in its place.
It was announced in May, 2013 that the house would be torn down to make way for a new lakeside mansion. The announcement of the possibility of the house being destroyed caused a major local uproar. The house was offered for free to anyone who would move it. The new owner even offered up $10,000 of his own money to help with the move.
The deadline to move the house came and went without anyone coming forward to save the house. The Winter Park City Council could do little to save the house, even while it rewrote the historic preservation ordinance, modeled on a City of Gainesville ordinance. The Capen House owners agreed to extend their deadline at the pleading of the community.
That extension allowed for a unique proposal to save the house: the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens has agreed to move the house to their gardens. There is a link between the museum and the historic home. The Capens and a Polaseks were friends. The museum currently owns sculptures of Capen descendants, created by Polasek,
Photo Credit: Orange Observer
To transplant the home to the museum grounds, the house was sliced into two parts, then floated via barge (a pretty common practice in Florida when moving historic buildings) across the lake. It would then be reassembled.
The 6,0000 sq ft home now sits on the shoreline of Lake Osceola in the large lawn area in the midst of the museum gardens behind Polasek's home. The house is a public events and educational office space for the museum, allowing for lectures, tours, and more art demonstration space.
Capen House Coverage:
Sep 6, 2013 Capen House Supporters Rally September 14 Aug 30, 2013 Capen House Raises $200,000 Jul 15, 2013 Capen House to be Sliced in Two, Floated on Barge at Polasek May 21, 2013 Free Historic Home + $10,000 to Anyone Who Can Move It