Hill Family House Moving

Memories of a family business: Growing up I lived on Athens Star Route, part of WV20. I attended Concord Training School and Athens Elementary School during my first four years, attended Melrose Elementary for grades 5 and 6, then went back to Athens for the 7th through 12th grade, graduating from Athens High School in 1964.

Do you remember the country song by Miranda Lambert, “The House That Built Me?”  Well, to revisit the House That Built Me, I have to visit the land where I worked and played. It's located on the Athens side of the I77 bridge over WV20. The house I grew up in about a quarter mile down the road on the Princeton side of the I77 bridge. My family,  the Hill Brothers, were house movers. Three days after I graduated we sold my childhood house and moved to Virginia. Hill Brothers House Movers, formally called Harry B. Hill, Inc., removed the roof from my house, moved the two parts through the I77 bridge underpass and put the house back together on another lot down the road.

House moving is a five generation Hill Family business. John Richard Hill, born 1849 in Virginia, died 1930 in Ohio, started the first generation of Hill House Movers during the 1890’s. He moved himself and his family to McDowell County, West Virginia, before 1895. The house moving business was not a company that moved furniture but a company that moved the structure from one location to another location, sometimes miles away.

When John retired he passed the business down to his son, Arnold B. Hill, born 1887, in Abington, Virginia. He died in 1951 in Mercer County, West Virginia. Arnold was killed when the house he was moving fell on him and crushed his leg.

In the 1920s when houses were being moved across the Kanawha River by barge to make room for the West Virginia Capital in Charleston, the Hill Family was working out of the Charleston area.

Following the death of Arnold Hill, sons Harry B. Hill and David L. Hill, Sr. took over the business, moving it to Roanoke, Virginia, in the early 1960s. Another brother, John Edward Hill, Sr., joined them as their mechanic after their move to Roanoke. They employed sons, grandsons, cousins and in-laws keeping it very much a family affair. 

After the death of Harry and David Sr., David L. Hill, Jr., took over the business, employing his son, completing the five generations. The younger generation, like a lot of children of farmers, found they did not want to continue in the tradition and moved on to other pursuits thus ending the era of Hill House Movers.

To move a house, it has to be raised by jacks in precise order, long steel beams are placed under the house, cribs on wheels, called dollie’s, are built under sections of the house, then a truck is attached to very carefully pull the house or building to its new location. The process is then reversed to set the house on a previously completed basement or foundation.

Before the 1920s houses were moved by horse and/or mule. The irregular movement of the animals sometimes caused considerable structural damage to the house. Later, large trucks came into use making the move smoother and less hazardous. During the era the Hill family was moving houses, jacks were cranked by hand. Each man was responsible for keeping in the same rhythm so as not to damage the house. Later, hydraulic jacks came along making that part of the job much easier. Now, instead of the steel beams large hydraulics with rubber tires are placed under the house allowing much larger, heavier houses and buildings to be moved.

Even with outdated equipment the Hill family movers could move your house without you having to pack up all your furnishings, dishes, clothes, etc. If you had things hanging on the walls or some that were valuable and precious to you it was probably a good idea to pack them and transport them yourself, but there was almost always no problem with anything in the house being destroyed.

There are many reasons to move a structure. In the early days there were very few structures built and each one was important. Some small towns found themselves at a disadvantage, maybe because of flooding or the railroad line being built a mile or two away. Decisions were made to move all the structures in the town to a more advantageous area.

The 1960s and 1970s were very profitable years for Harry B. Hill, Inc., House Movers. High speed, limited access roads (Interstates) were being built all over the United States. There were many houses and buildings in the way that were too structurally sound to be destroyed so they were moved to make room for the roads. In one instance, Harry B. Hill, Inc. was hired to move a complete street of houses out of the way of the I581 spur in Roanoke. The houses were all moved up Interstate 81 with men riding on the roofs of the houses with long insulated poles holding up the power and phone lines for the houses to pass under. The houses were taken to lots on Hershberger Road. Families still occupy these houses today.

Harry B. Hill, Inc. was contracted to move some buildings on the Blue Ridge Parkway at the Peaks of Otter. Since commercial vehicles were not allowed on the Parkway they had to drive to Bedford and go into the Peaks on back country roads to get to the moving site. For the small distance they had to drive on the Parkway they were required to cover all signs on their vehicles that contained their name. Also, if limbs or trees were in the way of the move they were not allowed to cut them. The limbs had to be broken off to look like a natural occurrence.

When the Bank of Athens decided to build a new bank building the John Tollson Shumate House (Butler House) stood in the way. A house moving firm was hired to move the house to its present location behind the new bank building.

Houses are not only moved from one location to another. There are occasions when the structure just needs to be raised. Maybe the house was built then the owner realized that he wanted a house with a basement. It is now more profitable to hire a company to raise the house, build a basement and lower the house onto the basement than it is to demolish the house and start all over with a new structure.

A son inherited a row of small two bedroom homes in a busy commercial district. The father stipulated in his will that the houses could not be torn down. Two bedroom houses were not worth much but the land commercially, beside a thriving strip mall, was tremendously valuable. The son hired Harry B. Hill, Inc. House Movers, now known as Movers and Contractors, to raise the six homes, take them down to the basic structure of studs, build basements and rebuild the structures to a more modern design. Now, they house an array of two story boutiques instead of small rentals.