Original Townsite / House Move -- Oct. 19, 2006 -- Collinsville, OK -- www.cvilleok.com

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Ted Wright -- last update 10/19/2006 (OldTownHouseMove.html) www.cvilleok.com
Copyright 2006 -- Collinsville, Oklahoma

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I'll use the 1995 USGS aerial photo (above) and the recent view (below) towards the Meadowcreek United Methodist Church to help you get your bearings to where this house sat until early this week (just east of Hwy 169 and north of 146th St. N.) The new Highway 169 was still under construction and the church not yet built in 1995.

This house belonging to Jim and Pam Brackett since 1995 was hoisted off it's foundation last week and left Collinsviile earlty this week headed for South Coffeyville where they plan to restore it. Based on stories Pam had heard the house was moved to the Collinsville location in the 1920s. The house had apparently also been home to the Fred Feigel and Ralph Tyler families.

While movement of a house this big and old is quite a story, my main facination is more with the location of the house which I assume marks the original townsite of Collinsville before it moved to the current location (adjacent to the then new railroad tracks) in late 1899 or early 1900. Most descriptions of that original town location are pretty vague but one in 1974 gives that location as between this house and the barn (which I assume to be east of the house). Another historical article said the Main street ran north-south. If those assumptions are true the photo below would show the area of that street and long since moved wooden buildings.
-- Ted Wright (Oct. 19, 2006)

This garage east of the house being moved is ornamented with "FF" which I assume would be for Fred Feigel and in darker colored bricks looking similar to those on the front of the Newspaper Museum (at 1110 W. Main) which was designed by Harry Hamilton in 1925 similar to the Feigel home below.

Highway 16 was a gravel "all-weather" road from Tulsa to Kansas City as early as 1931 and would provide the basic path for what is now "old" Highway 169 just a bit east of existing Hwy 169 at 146th St. North. The bricks were removed from the Brackett house before the trip to S. Coffeyville this week.

This partial 1935 Collinsville history discusses a bit about the original townsite (& it's well water) as well as another pre-Collinsville site of Eli.