Onlookers watch final move

    A crowd of people gathered on North Iowa Avenue Friday to witness the Mills Seed Building inch closer and closer toward its future foundation on the east side of the street. The people who watched came from near and far to get a glimpse of history in the making. One onlooker, Roger Greiner, drove from Keota just to see the building being moved.

    ?I just came down to see this,? said Greiner. ?It certainly is impressive. It?s kind of unreal. I?m surprised how high in the air he has it. If you look under there, you can see the structure he?s got. It?s just amazing.?

    Kathy Evans lives at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Seventh Street, just a few blocks from where the building was once located. She said she has been following the move since it began early last week.

    ?I think it?s pretty awesome, and I?m proud of Jeremy Patterson,? said Evans. ?I think this is a big, exciting ordeal for the town of Washington. Something this exciting has never gone on before. I think the building will fit in nicely with the downtown.?

    Evans? friend and relative Janette Yoder was also on hand for the building move. Yoder said she remembers the last time a building was moved in Washington.

    ?When I lived on B Street, they moved a house on the street and they had to take the power lines down. That was right next door to where I lived,? said Yoder. ?That was 20-odd years ago, and it was the last time I saw a building moved in this town.?

    Kay Ciha said that she has been following the move all week long and has taken oodles of photographs.

    ?I think this will change the landscape of the downtown,? said Ciha. ?He isn?t going to just set the building down and leave it. He has great plans for it. It needs to be revived, and this kind of thing keeps the town lively and active.?

    John Greener said that he has watched ?every minute? of the building?s move. He said he works for the bus company that fuels its buses near where the building once stood.

    ?This is the most amazing things I have ever seen,? said Greener.

For more, see our March 1 print edition.