WINTER PARK, Fla. — A historic house, and a popular wedding chapel are being picked up and moved to different areas of Winter Park.
The historic Capen House is just days away from settling in at its new home.
Following a massive community push to save it, the 128-year-old home is being relocated instead of knocked down so a new home can be built in its place.
The Capen home in Winter Park was built in 1885, but the person that purchased the property had different plans for the land.
However, that didn't stop historians from doing everything they could to keep it in the city.
Construction crews worked around the clock as they prepared the historic Capen House in Winter Park Friday for its half-million-dollar move scheduled next week.
"It'll have a brand-new life serving our community and be a place where people will make memories for generations to come," said Debbie Komanski, executive director of the Albin Polasek Museum.
The house was able to be saved due to several nonprofit organizations and the help of the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens on Lake Eola, which is where that house is expected to settle as a home.
Construction crews cut the home in half and raised it about 5 feet and attached it to a hitch. The hitch will then be attached to a semitrailer that will pull it over the bridge they had to make to go over the pool, onto a barge and float it across the lake.
"It'd be such a loss to loss this wonderful historic house and we have the perfect location and the need for it," said Komanski.
The house will be used for education, personal events and functions. It's all business that is likely to boost the local economy in Winter Park.
"Almost everybody on the critical team are all natives, and we've come to this point in our life where we understand the importance of preserving the history of our town," said Komanski.
Construction crews plan to move the first half of the home on Tuesday.
Winter Park Chapel on the move
A noted Winter Park building has been saved from the wrecking ball.
Developers have plans for the property at West New England Avenue. In order to save a chapel that sits on the property, the developer is moving it to the corner of New York and Lyman avenues.
The chapel has been in the Winter Park community for years. A sign on the property dates back to 1943.
Construction crews have already set the beams they will use to raise the building in order to move it.
Crews have prepped the chapel for the move
The former African Methodist Episcopal church is known as the Winter Park Wedding Chapel.
"We opened up as a photography studio and then five years ago, we started doing the weddings," said Suzanne Graffham, of Winter Park Wedding Chapel.
Now the owner of the property Graffham rents from has different plans for the land where it sits, but rather than knocking down the chapel, he has chosen to raise the funds to move it.
"He is saving this chapel. It could've been torn down, but he is doing a great thing for the community," said Graffham.
The chapel won't be moving far, and while Graffham said she is happy her business is staying in Winter Park, so are those, whose fondest memories lie within the walls of the building.
Ian and Lynn Bews were married in the chapel on Dec. 6, 2010.
"To know that it is going to be preserved is fantastic, because we were always talking about coming in 10-years-time to renew our vows.
Construction crews said it will be about a week before they open the doors of the chapel, following the moving to its new location.
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