The historic Stage Coach Inn in West Liberty is moving three miles to the West Liberty Heritage Foundation’s depot today. The structure along Highway 6 in West Liberty was built before Iowa was even a state in 1841.
Heritage Foundation board member, Scott Brooke, tells KCRG TV the project has been roughly 10 years in the making. ”It’s ambitious, but it’s exciting too, because it’s one of the oldest structures left in the area,” Brooke says. The building is three stories tall and weighs more than 100 tons. He says the move will take all day.
“It’s a slow process, you could probably walk as fast as they will travel,” Brooke says. The move was set to get underway at 9 a-m. The owners of the land donated the building to the Heritage Foundation so they could build a new home. The Stage Coach Inn was a major social and commercial hub for Eastern Iowa as one of the few inns along the trail to Iowa City in the 19th century.
The Heritage foundation says the building is a valuable historical relic that has stayed relatively unchanged over the last two centuries. The organization will be collecting donations to help pay for the restoration.