Vibrant Building Solutions saving old homes, keeping material out of landfills.
Recently, the men were called upon to work with members of another long-time Arizona ranching family to save a home built around 1920. Helene Babbitt, with her husband, the late Jim Babbitt, owned a historic two-bedroom, one-bath bungalow in downtown Flagstaff. She loved the location, but wanted to build a new home for herself that wouldn’t require a lot of maintenance. She contacted the Townsite Community Land Trust, a nonprofit organization that preserves historic homes and makes them available through its affordable housing program.
Townsite CLT Executive Director Duffie Westheimer was thrilled with the donation, marking the nonprofit’s sixth historic home. She found a lot for the house nearby, but moving the house would require more support. That’s when she called Vibrant Building Solutions.
“That house was built very well,” said Denny. “It has a very strong structure.”
A Historic Move
After months of preparing and securing the house, Denny, Fornara and team members Anthony Collum and Sean Timlick began the slow and precarious journey of moving it, starting at 6 p.m., Wednesday, June 28.
“The size of the house wasn’t very big, but the route was very challenging because of how tight the homes and trees were,” said Denny. “The logistics were a bit challenging. At times we had only six or seven inches of space on either side of the house.”
“The movers were just incredible. These people are so talented,” said Helene Babbitt, who watched with nostalgia as Vibrant Building Solutions carefully drove the century-old home off her lot. “The house was stalled for about an hour when they had to move the wheels underneath by hand in order to change the direction of the rig. They did that twice. They were never worried. It was an incredible feat.”
The historic bungalow was delivered safely to West Birch St., only about a mile away from its original location; however, the move took nearly 10 hours.
Honoring an Old House
Through the years, the home had four owners. Members of three of the families came out to witness the move and share memories made in the old house. Among the small gathering were three generations of Babbitts: Helene, her son Charles, along with his wife, Traleigh, and their four daughters, Britania, 7, Isla, 8, Kalista, 14, and Stella, 17, who was born in the house.
“This meant so much to my grandma [Helene],” said Stella Babbitt, who will be attending Arizona State University this fall, working toward her goal of becoming a high school history teacher. “I’m really close to her and I wanted to support her and watch it go. Every time we had family gatherings at their house across the street someone would say, ‘Stella was born in that house!’ Seeing it go felt so unnatural but it’s really good that it will be preserved.”
The home was built by Will and Ann Marlar. “Will was a pharmacist, an undertaker and a state senator,” said Westheimer. “He had a funeral parlor, a dance hall and built an auto garage. He built 20 homes in Flagstaff.”
Around 1924, the Marlars sold the house to Frank and Louise Wolf. Their grandchildren, Martha Wolf Jacobson and her brother, Tom, had fond memories of visits there. The two came out for the move and stayed through the night until it was set down in its new neighborhood at nearly 4 a.m., June 29.
“It was really emotional for me,” said Martha. “My brother and I would spend two weeks every summer there for 15 years while we were growing up. I almost cried when the house was being taken off the lot. I know my grandmother just loved being in Flagstaff.”
In 1974, the home was sold to Eleanor Raudebaugh. “I’ll be honest. When I first saw it being lifted up, it was really, really emotional for me. I have so many wonderful childhood memories spending time there with my grandmother. I lived with her in the summers as she got older.” said Terry Gochanour, Eleanor’s granddaughter.
Gochanour and her mother, Mary Lou Raudebaugh Morrow, happened to drive by the house when it was being prepared for relocation. “It was incredibly heart-warming to learn that it was going to be preserved and brought to the neighborhood where my mother grew up,” said Gochanour. “To see that it’s going to be around forever made my heart very, very happy.”
The house was purchased by the Babbitts in 1995.
Currently, the house is sitting a little higher than the other houses around it. “When the foundation is built, it will look like it’s always been there,” said Westheimer, noting that Marlar built at least one other house on West Birch.
Moving into their Destiny
As a teen in high school, Denny began moving houses with his dad, Gary, in the family business, G.R. Denny and Son Structure Relocators. When the Great Recession hit in 2008, work slowed down in Arizona but the two were needed in Galveston, Texas, to help lift houses that were flooded from Hurricane Ike. They returned to Prescott and new opportunities in 2012.
“Three houses near Prescott High School were going to be torn down,” said Denny. “We found a vacant lot across the street for sale and were able to save two of the houses. That got us started moving houses that were going to be torn down. We’d set them up and rent or sell them.”
When Gary decided to retire, he offered the equipment to Garrett. In 2014, Garrett joined forces with developer and family friend Vince Fornara to create Vibrant Building Solutions. “My father was definitely into the hard work aspect. He still loves that and my partner, Vince, is the same way.”
“I did all of that development above Willow Lake – Vista del Lago and Vista Verde – with another fellow,” said Fornara. “I ran out of property to sell.”
Fornara went to Prescott High School with Gary Denny. “When I met Garrett, he was young and energetic and I wasn’t ready to quit,” he said. “We do a lot of repurposing of old structures. We’ve moved in the vicinity of 30 structures, four of which were school buildings that we remodeled into homes. It was very satisfying to move the George Phippen cabin and porch slab that now rests next to the Phippen Museum.” Phippen was a sculptor and painter who worked in the cabin studio he built in Prescott.
Currently, the team is developing 16 apartment units near Fry’s grocery store in Prescott. Vibrant Building Solutions also provides dumpsters for contractors.
A Rewarding Move
“What’s most rewarding and also most challenging is moving houses,” said Denny. “You see a house sitting on the ground, you pick it up and move it to a different location, set it down and someone can move into it. The majority of the ones we’ve moved are still in use. It feels very good to save these houses and keep them out of the landfill.” QCBN
By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN
Photo by Kay Lyons: Vibrant Building Solutions owners Garrett Denny and Vince Fornara, with office manager Sarafina Fornara, are thrilled to be able to save old homes and structures and make them available for people to live in, while keeping construction materials out of city landfills.
