A new house went up at 253 Jefferson Street in Leonardtown yesterday, and it was a quick job.
Not even a floorboard at 10:00 a.m., and the job was practically done by sundown.
But not to worry. It wasn't any fly-by-night operation. Actually, it was a roll-down-the-street job.
It was a strange sight, a 50-ton house, two stories tall, and four lanes wide moving down Route 5.
Electric lines went down, policemen stopped traffic, and the St. Mary's Hospital plugged into its emergency generators while movers wheeled the creaking old home down the slight incline of Route 5 in front of St. Mary's Nursing Home.
Called "Town's End" by some, the structure was the childhood residence of Del. Ernie Bell.
When a new and stable foundation is built under the building in upcoming weeks, it will become the home of Leonardtown resident D.J. Warn.
Warn bought the house, which is said to be around 65 years old, when he heard that the St. Mary's Nursing Home planned to tear it down.
The Bell House, as it is generally referred to, sits in the exact location where the nursing home plans to build part of its new building.
Warn, a man bent on beating the higher cost of building, bought the house at a price much less than the normal cost of owning a building.
"We looked at homes everywhere, and it was cheaper to buy this house and move it," Warn said as he watched his home roll down the street yesterday.
Movers, delayed for more than a week by wind, weather, and red tape, said the process is usually simple and safe.
