Moving the Old Oakton Schoolhouse

There's an historic building in my hometown, that sits on the corner of Chain Bridge Road and Hunter Mill Road, which is right next door to my father's office building. It was built in 1897 as a one-room schoolhouse for Oakton, Virginia.

Part of the property was used for a camping equipment store for a long time. As a kid, since I was in charge of cleaning my father's office (now my office too) on Saturdays, I visited it on my way to "work", checking out the Swiss Army knives, tents, canteens, etc.

I feel even more connected to it because I rented, and subsequently bought my first peice of commercial property from the Dan Couch, who must've owned it from the early 70's. Interestingly, Dan's daughter used to babysit me as a kid.

Anyway, Dan sold the property to Chevy Chase Bank last year for 3 and a half million smackeroos, and they prepared to build a branch there, to compliment the other 92 bank branches lining Chain Bridge Road. But they had a small problem; a bunch of do-gooders who didn't want them to tear down such an historic building. So, after months of haggling, Chevy Chase did an honorable thing and moved the building from that corner down to the site of a new park in Oakton.

I filmed the video on the morning of the move. Some of it is a little boring (I need to edit a minute or two from the actual moving of the building, because it moved so darn slow).