CorvtftiCostalimes page ^^ a _ Monday. July 13.1981 c^cr<r~— SQ/Wg?/^ y/i
An historic house returns home
By CATHY TALLYN
Times staff writer
ANTIOCH — James
Donlon's house is back
home.
No one is sure how
long the hiatus was.
But it's been an awfully*
long time since the 100-
year or older building
stood in what is now the
Black Diamond Mines
Regional Park at the
end of Somersville
Road between Pittsburg and Antioch.
When the coal mines
closed, sometime from
1880 to 1900, many of
the miners' houses, including the Donlon
house, were relocated
to nearby Antioch.
But Sunday it and
another house of the
same vintage were
moved from their
downtown Antioch locations back to the mining area.
The buildings will
join the old Thomas
Ranch house moved to
the park last year and
will become part of a
visitors' center park officials hope to have
open this spring.
The arduous process
to bring the houses
back to Somersville
Road left more than
one onlooker wondering
how Donlon, one of An-
tioch's early settlers,
managed the move.
But then he didn't
have to contend with
overhead power lines
and other obstacles of
today's life that had to
be overcome in Sunday's move, begun just
after daybreak.
Truckers moving the
houses had to skirt
around busy streets,
squeeze through tight
spots and navigate
tricky curves along the
Sunday morning (he old Donlon house left its foundation and traveled back to its original site, where it
will become a visitors center at Black Diamond Mines Regional Park. bv Kamy Bokw
nearly eight-mile route.
The small caravan
attracted the attention
of a few early-risers as
it slowly weaved its
way through the city,
ending up at the park's
Sidney Flats six hours
later.
It was the last mile
that threw Trost Movers' schedule out of kilter.
"Does it really get
narrower?" one mover
asked park supervisor
Joanne Dean after he
spied a sign cautioning
drivers that the road
thinned out about a
half-mile from their
goal.
The Donlon house
had just scraped by an
overhanging tree, taking with it a few
branches.
Up ahead, the road
narrowed between_a
gully and a hill. A
barbed wire fence and
a tall metal sign along
the road presented further problems.
A chain saw shortened the too-tall wooden posts about a foot,
and after a try at hoisting the sign out with a
crane failed, a few of
the movers managed to
bend it back just far
enough so the house
could squeeze by with
what looked like only
an inch to spare.
There were no such
problems with the other, smaller house which
trailed behind.
At another tight
spot, the saw and muscle of the workers was
no help. The solution
was to jack up one side
of the Donlon house so
it could clear some
troublesome metal
posts.
Driver Glenn Swat-
son carefully guided
the large truck and
trailer down the center
of the road, helped out
when needed by directions from Doug Trost
and Allen James Bell.
Derek and Matt
Trost were positioned
on top of the house,
pushing overhanging
tree branches out of the
way.
The houses will be
put on permanent foundations and are planned
as lasting fixtures at
the park. The Donlon
house will probably become a visitors' center
and the other an office
building, said Dean.
The park almost had
to do without one of the
houses, saved just minutes before it was to be
razed. Some park employees, dressed in
garb representative of
the mid-1800s, arrived
on the day of the sched
uled razing and man
aged to delay the bull
dozer crew until
agreement was made to
give the house at Ninth
and H streets to the dis-
' trict was worked out,
Dean said.
The Donlon house, in
the way of a parking lot
to be built at the new
City Hall, was sold to
the district for $1, she
said. The red building
had been an antique
shop before it was
moved and will need little work before it can
be used, she said.
Dean said there are ,
plans to move two more /
old mining houses from
Antioch to the park. ;'J
