Moving the 1795 Law Office - Part 2

Storing the Dismantled Law Office

Karin Wikoff, at Sean’s garage: “Thursday November 6 was a cold and blustery day in Southern Cayuga County. At Sean Lacey’s place, we even got a burst of hail while waiting for the arrival of the disassembled Walter Wood Law Office and Post Office.

I’d never before noticed how narrow Townline Road is - the steep ditches on both sides don’t leave much room to maneuver. Watching Jeff Koehn calmly and carefully jockey the Bobcat forklift to pick up a pallet of WWLO-PO materials in that narrow space made that very clear.

When he got the first pallet to the door of the garage, it was immediately clear it would not fit. So, Jeff lifted the top half of the pallet off and set it aside. Rustin found a couple pieces of wood to wedge under the bottom half to give Jeff the clearance he needed to approach the load from 90 degrees and lift it from a different side. This time, the pallet fit neatly through the doorway and into the back of the garage.

Flatbed arriving with palets.

First palet being loaded in shed.

Palet stored in shed.

Then Jeff brought the second pallet from the truck in the road. In the driveway, they repeated the process of shifting the orientation of the Bobcat to the pallet, in hopes it would fit through the door the way the first one had. As he eased forward, Rustin, on the left, called out, “You have half an inch of clearance.” Sean’s friend, Jerry, was on the right, where the WWLO-PO materials were rubbing against the weatherstripping. “Move the other way a bit!” he called out. But there was only half an inch to spare on the other side.

I held my breath as Jeff expertly threaded that impossibly tight needle – and, sure enough, he managed to get the whole pallet inside without damage to anything. Under Rustin’s direction, Jeff gently stacked the second pallet on top of the first.

At that point, Jeff decided he would need to see the remaining materials all together before he could figure out how to fit all the pieces of the puzzle in place. By then, Sean had switched to a warmer hat, and I was nearly frozen, so I went home, confident that the whole project was in good hands.”

Another palet arriving.

Offloading the palet.

The dismantled law office.

Sean stayed to the end, and amazingly, all the materials eventually fit into the garage – just barely! There will need to be some more reorganization to make room for Sean’s lawnmower, but he is very pleased to be able to help.

Looking at that jumble of old boards and timbers now, it’s clear that this will be a challenge. But we have seen the beautiful restoration work at Opendore, and the excellent work Jeff did on the church in Levanna, so I am excited to see how he’ll transform this pile of historical detritus into something useful, educational, and full of life again.”