Era: 1900s-1979
Location: Various locations
Around 1979, C.L. Davis and Son House Movers moved a 100-ton, 100+ year-old house by truck from John Street (now Curwood Castle Drive) to Cass Street.
But 70 years earlier, moving a house required very different technology. Rails were laid down in front of the house. Horses walked in a circle around a capstan anchored to a tree or some solid object. The winding of the rope around the capstan acted like a winch, pulling the house forward on the rails—very, very slowly.
The contrast between these two methods shows how much technology changed in Owosso over the decades.