Immanuel Lutheran Church (across the street from me) is finally wresting the historic parsonage house from its foundation for relocation elsewhere in Orange’s historic district.
This has been on our block’s wait-and-see agenda for three years. The church first 
hosted an open house so neighbors and the generally curious could stop in and explore. The structure is quite large and perfectly suited for Old Towne charm with its wrap-around porch and peaked roof.
Converted years ago into an administration building for the church school, the house was stripped of homey details (no kitchen and industrial-blah bathrooms), and now it looms like a big restoration headache waiting to happen.
I’d like to know – now that I’m listening to jackhammers at the crack of sunshine – who bought the house and where it’s heading. When I first toured the building it was listed for sale at $400,000. That had jaws hanging, because generally, houses that have to be tugged from the ground, moved across town, and then rebuilt onto a new foundation sell for $1. Church members told me the money raised selling the building would go toward the construction of an expanded school campus.
The neighbors on the block at one time talked about playing witness with a block party the night the house finally moves. We were disappointed to hear that one tree from our street of incredibly tall palms will have to be removed. It’s not likely to survive the uprooting, which also makes me wonder how long it’s been living there.
