Westville’s relocation of historic house could take place in two weeks

The historic village known as Westville is tentatively looking at the week of May 15 for movement of the first structure to its new home in Columbus after work on a sewer line delayed the first attempt on May 1.

“They’re saying the earliest possible date for us will be May 15. That is a Monday,” Darby Britto, Historic Westville’s public relations and marketing director said Tuesday of the Columbus Water Works sewer project along South Lumpkin Road. “I prefer to move on a Tuesday, but that’s just me, because of the communication required on a Sunday if the weather looks iffy.”

Any rain leading up to the relocation of the Wells House — or certainly inclement weather the day of the move — would prompt the attraction’s management to delay it once again.

“It cannot rain for a few days in Lumpkin before we move the building out because of the dirt roads” that could become very difficult to negotiate if they became muddy, said Britto, noting the structure is already loaded on a moving platform and ready to go.

Historic Westville, a tourist and educational attraction, is relocating from its longtime home in Lumpkin, Ga., about 35 miles southeast of Columbus. Its future home is off South Lumpkin Road near Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center and not far from the National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center.

Britto said Historic Westville is communicating with the Columbus Water Works on progress of the sewer project along South Lumpkin Road to gauge the precise timing of the move. Westville also has decided against doing so on a Saturday due to that day being busy for Oxbow Meadows, with Friday off the list of potential days as well because of military graduations held at the National Infantry Museum.

“We’re working around everybody as best we can,” she said.

The general plan is to make a decision sometime around May 11 on whether or not the Wells House relocation will take place. That would offer a fairly close window into the weather forecast for the following Monday or Tuesday.

The route that movers will take the structure will be U.S. Highway 27 through Fort Benning to Columbus, with a left turn onto Fort Benning Road, right onto Torch Hill Road, then left onto South Lumpkin. When the big moment does occur, Historic Westville asks that those viewing the move along the way do so from parking lots along the route.

The Wells House dates to the early 1800s and is actually a log cabin inside with a shed. It is believed to have been constructed and lived in originally by Yuchi Indians, according to the 1850s-era living history museum. The Wells family later added on to the structure and occupied the house for more than 100 years.

The village of Westville opened in 1966, with it receiving various buildings from Jonesboro, Ga. The collection has grown to nearly three dozen structures, which will now be relocated from just over 80 acres in Lumpkin to about 35 acres off South Lumpkin Road. The cost of the move, funded by a capital campaign, is $9.5 million. The attraction is shooting to open by late 2018.

Being developed in four phases, Historic Westville in Columbus will include the traditional 1850s-era village, a Creek Indian settlement, a rural plantation farm, a frontier settlement, and an interpretive center to include entertainment.

This story was originally published May 2, 2017 at 3:25 PM with the headline "Westville’s relocation of historic house could take place in two weeks."