Peter Green House being moved in 2007. (brown.edu)

Brown University moved the Peter Green House, an 1868 Victorian, out of the path of The Walk, a process that is captured in this entertaining video from, I think, 2007. As the comments reveal, Brown sought to erect a number of buildings on either side of The Walk – a sort of pedestrian mechanism for Thayer Street (Main Street of Brown) avoidance. So far only the horrid Granoff Center for the Creative Arts has gone up (in 2012). The delightful little Urban Lab has been spared, at least for now. A brain research center has been canceled and incorporated into other buildings. A great old gas station is gone, a loss to convenience if not aesthetic pleasure. Here is a video of the house on the move.

The house was moved 450 feet to the west and was twisted 90 degrees. I’m afraid I cannot report that its “context” was improved. The moving job took three days. This video does not, I promise you, last three days.

Brown is said to have paid $5 million to move the house rather than tearing it down, so it says much of the institution’s commitment to preservation, whatever its commitment to ugly new architecture may be. One may hope that stopped with the Nelson Fitness Center, completed in 2013, but I don’t recommend holding your breath. [After research I find that no one at Brown is saying how much it cost, but one official estimated $500,000.]