Plantation Prefab

After the Civil War, labor shortages on plantation properties drove one New Orleans lumberman, Walter W. Carré, to begin selling manufactured portable cabins (top image). The steam-cut lumber was framed, marked and shipped to clients in Arkansas, Honduras, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Carré claimed that his cabins were so easy to use, they didn't even require a carpenter's skills.(1) In April 1869, his company received the "Best Portable Cabin" prize at the Third Grand State Fair and two years later The Daily Picayune touted his cabins  "marvels of ingenuity."(2)

Other New Orleans lumber concerns also offered pre-cut plantation cabins. The Lhote Lumber Company's 1883 catalog featured its double cabin (center image), as did the Louisiana Steam, Sash and Door Company's 1891 catalog (bottom). In their advertisements, each company placed cabin doors and windows in a different arrangement.

For those interested in early portable structures shipped out of New Orleans, see the following articles:

Charles E. Peterson. ”Early American Prefabrication.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts XXXIII (January 1948): pp. 37-46.

Samuel Wilson Jr. “New Orleans Prefab, 1867.” The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 22:1 (March 1963): pp. 38-39.


(1)"Portable Plantation Cabins." The Times-Picayune 12 November 1870.

(2)"Wonderful Mechanism." The Daily Picayune 27 April 1871.

Images above: "Plantation Cabins." The Daily Picayune 9 September 1882.

"Plantation Cabins." Lhote Lumber  Company Catalog. n.p.,1883. Architectural Trade Catalogs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

"Plantation Cabins." Roberts & Company's Illustrated Catalogue of Mouldings, Architectural and Ornamental Wood Work, Door and Window Frames, Sash, Doors and Blinds, Brackets and Cornices, Porch Columns, Balustrades, Fences, Counters, Shelving and Store Fittings, designed and compiled by William Bell, superintendent, Louisiana Steam Sash, Blind and Door Factory. New Orleans, 1891.Architectural Trade Catalogs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. Now digitized via the Internet Archive's Building Technology Heritage Library.

Modern House Moving 1906

In 1906, New Orleans businessman George J. Abry (caricature above) published an article in the locally produced journal, Architectural Art and Its Allies. In it, he addressed the science of house moving:

"A great part of the work of to-day is remedying defects of all kinds, growing out of many causes, such as building adjoining, undermining foundations, irregular settle and overloading.

In such cases it requires experience to know where to take hold. In many instances it is of financial interest to the owner of a building to have it raised, lowered, moved or shored.

House moving was not so extensively carried on in times past as it is at present; streets were graded to conform with the buildings thereon while now the buildings are made to conform with the grade of the streets; small buildings were demolished to make room for the erection of larger ones, while now the small ones are moved to a new location to make room for the larger ones; buildings can now be raised and additional stories built under them, or roofs can be raised and additional stories built on the old walls; fronts of walls of adjoining buildings can be shored up while the walls of new buildings are sunk, all of which come under the head of House Moving."

Read an earlier post about the Abry business.

George J. Abry. "Modern House Moving and Shoring." Architectural Art and Its Allies II:4 (October 1906): p. 5. Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Image above:  W.K. Patrick & Assoc. Club Men of Louisiana in Caricature. East Aurora, NY: The Roycrofters, 1917, p. 215. As viewed 3 Jan 2012 on the Internet Archive: http://archive.org/stream/clubmenoflouisia00patr#page/214/mode/2up

New Orleans Business Archive: Abry Brothers

Abry Brothers published this advertisement in the New Orleans City Directory of 1921. At that time, the family had already been in the New Orleans house shoring/moving business 81 years, since the Frankfurt-born John G. Abry established the company in 1840. By 1921, yet another generation had taken over operations, with three Abrys in charge: George, Emile and John. They lived in close proximity to one another, at 822 North Johnson, 820 North Prieur, and 1021 North Galvez, respectively.  

Over the years, the company worked on a number of important Louisiana properties: Houma House Plantation, the Jax Brewery, and the Stern's House at Long Vue Gardens. The company is still in business, although it is now located on Orleans Avenue, rather than the 604 Canal-Commercial address it had in the 1920's.  To read more about the company's history, click here.

Did you know there are prizes for "greatest feats" in moving buildings? For example, the Guinness Book of World Records maintains an award for the "Heaviest Building Moved Intact."

When the Minneapolis Shubert Theatre was moved in the 1990s, it was then the largest such project undertaken:



Want to read more?

Edmonds, Molly. "The Five Heaviest Buildings Ever Moved." 02 April 2008 HowStuffWorks.com Viewed 06 October 2008.

Gregory, J. "Reconsidering Relocated Buildings: ICOMOS, Authenticity and Mass Relocation." International Journal of Heritage Studies 14:2 (2008): 112-130. [available through Inter Library Loan]

"Building Relocation: Victory or Defeat?" Chap. in J. Myrick Howard, Buying Time for Heritage: How to Save an Endangered Property (University of North Carolina Press 2007): pp. 125-132.
[Available in the TSA Library NA111.H69 2007]

"Nomadic Hotels and Lighthouses" 20 October 2008 Pruned Viewed 20 October 2008.