Historic coach house moves for McCormick Place expansion

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Prairie Avenue on the city's South Side leads to Chicago's past, and on Wednesday, history was on the move. A coach house built in the late 1860s is on to its next chapter after a stroll down what was once one of America's wealthiest streets.

"Prairie Avenue would have been the place to live on in the 1870s and 1880s. All of Chicago's business and social leaders lived on this street including Marshall Field, George Pullman, Philip Armour would have been neighbors of Mrs. Rees," William Tyre, director of Glessner House and Museum, said.

Wealthy Widow Harriet Rees built the mansion at 2110 S. Prairie for $35,000. It, too, will move to the new site down the block due to an expansion at McCormick Place.

"Yes, well that is a very controversial issue. Ideally, of course, we want to keep landmarks in their original locations to preserve the context in which they were built. But in this particular situation with how much the neighborhood has changed through the decades ultimately the best decision was to move it next to another historic house," Tyre said.

"Today the move for the coach house took an hour and a half," Peter Kuhn, senior project manager, Bulley & Andrews, said. "That's going to be probably overall a three day duration in the street."

The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority is paying for the two moves. Progress pays for the past.