May 17, 2005
A week from today, Tuesday, May 24, the sections of the Zook house will be rolling from their original site, 327 S. Oak St., to their new site in Katherine Legge Memorial Park, 5901 S. County Line Rd.
Com Ed's OK'd the date, so have SBC and Comcast, and the village of Hinsdale is ready with police escort and tree trimming services.
More on the move a little later in this Update.
Each of the four buildings at 327 S. Oak – the northwest addition of the Zook, house, the front of the house, the main house and the garage-studio – is off its foundation. Way off.
Three of the buildings are on wheels (trucks) and are at least three feet off the ground, while wheels are being placed beneath the fourth (the main house) this week.
Each building is secured to roll, braced and wrapped inside and outside with huge steel beams (some are 14-inches high, weigh 180 pounds per linear foot and are 40-feet long) that are placed beneath, around and through walls.
One-half inch steel bands wrap around the beams and are stretched tight on the two buildings – the addition and garage-studio – that are being moved without floors..
Wood framing supplements the steel bracing in the interior of each building, and plastic sheeting on the exterior of each building covers gaps, holes and other opening where walls, roofs, windows and floors have been removed.
“Some people think we’re putting up a pre-fab (home) because of the (building) sections, the way they’re braced, on wheels and all,” says Dan Dillabaugh, Jr., foreman for Dillabaugh, Inc., Crown Point, IN., the house mover. “When we tell ‘em we’re moving it, they’re pretty amazed.”
Dan and his father are asked repeatedly how the job’s going, and throughout they’ve been able to reply, “no surprises.”
“It’s a very well-built structure, done (constructed) right and proportioned. It balances nicely on wheels,” says Dan Sr.
Back to moving day. The Village of Hinsdale has approved the move beginning at 7 a.m.
Each building will be towed, probably by an 18-wheel heavy-duty wrecker, from 327 S. Oak south on Oak Street to Eighth Street, then right/west on Eighth to Elm Street, then left/south on Elm, across 55th Street to 57th Street, then left/east on 57th to County Line Road, right/south on County Line to Katherine Legge Memorial Park, on the east side of County Line. The distance is about a mile and one-half.
Once the buildings arrive at KLM Park, they’ll be parked until their new foundations are ready, sometime in early summer.
When the foundations are ready, the buildings will be “skidded” onto them and put back together to a remarkable tolerance no greater than one-eighth inch.
One-eighth inch? "Yup. I'll try to get it perfect, zero tolerance," says Dan Sr.
The northwest addition on wheels. 
The original back wall of the main house. 
The front of the house with steel in place. 
Finally, that possible Zook-designed house in a neighboring suburb? A Zook expert visited, and thinks not. But Zook did work in the area and was known, so the house could be a bit of a homage to him. Unofficially, of course.
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