The one-story house was hauled by truck from the south end of town to Third Avenue North as part of a Heartland Hope and Homes project that has been in the works for about a year and a half.

Heartland Hope and Homes repairs and builds homes for families that meet income qualifications. Families receiving the homes have to help work on them.

The house was donated to the organization and was placed on property that was also donated. It is expected to be finished and ready to be occupied in mid to late summer.

Shari Lehman, the development officer for Heartland Hope and Homes, said she saw an advertisement online for a house in Fort Dodge that would be given away for free. Leaders of the organization began talking about the possibility of getting that house. The house, located in the 1300 block of South 25th Street, was donated to the group by its owner, Tom Wolfe.

- Messenger photo by Bill Shea A house on the move makes the turn from Second Avenue North to 18th Street Tuesday afternoon. The house was hauled from South 25th Street to Third Avenue North, where it will be renovated to become the new home of a local family through a Heartland Hope and Homes project.

Then the group received a donation of land on Third Avenue North between 16th and 17th streets. That land was destined to become the new location of the house.

Contractors and the family that will be living in the completed home worked on a foundation at the Third Avenue North location.

Lehman said the youth group from CrossWay Church removed the shingles and siding from the house to prepare it for the move.

“It’s kind of cool how everything came together — the donation of the house, the donation of the land, the kids that came and worked,” she said.

Tuesday was moving day. Many people out and about late Tuesday afternoon were treated to the unusual sight of a house on a trailer being eased down several city streets. The house traveled east on 15th Avenue South, north on 32nd Street, west on Second Avenue North, north on 18th Street and then west on Third Avenue North to its final destination. The truck towing the house was escorted by two Fort Dodge police vehicles. Police officers and Webster County sheriff’s deputies did traffic control at multiple intersections.

The house moving crew was led by Tom Mader, of West Bend, who moves buildings for a living.

By 5 p.m., the house, still on the trailer it was moved on, was sitting in front of the foundation it will eventually sit on.

Lehman said Heartland Hope and Homes had never moved a house before.

After the house is placed on its foundation, a 14-by-14-foot addition will be constructed on its front.