A documentary debuting at The Varsity today focuses on the transportation of the 280-ton house — a feat that required steel beams chains and back roads.
Midway Plantation's Big House built in 1848 and passed down a North Carolina family for six generations was uprooted and moved 3 miles north in 2005.
The building made it without dropping any rooms.
The owners Charlie and Dena Silver said that as the area around the 4000 square-foot historic house became developed" they decided that moving it to a more secluded area would preserve its history.
""I knew that if we had shopping centers all around" if I had a choice to live there I would say no" Charlie Silver said. It's not a good place to live.""
In addition to documenting how the house was moved" the film delves into the history of the house.
Development of Midway began during the 1800s under Charles Lewis Hinton. The 34-acre plantation the Big House and several outbuildings were a wedding gift from Hinton to his son David Hinton Jr.
The cotton plantation rested on the Raleigh site for more than 150 years.
The Hinton family from which Charlie Silver descends has helped shape North Carolina history from early days of colonial settlement.
John Hinton arrived in North Carolina holding a royal land grant in 1739 and since then several generations of descendants carrying his name have continued to establish their identity within the state.
A cousin of Silver Godfrey Cheshire a New York critic journalist and filmmaker" said he knew filming a documentary about the plantation mansion of his childhood could tell the extensive story of his family's history and the significance Midway has for them.
""I think a lot of people in North Carolina will identify with this as a family story and with Midway as an element of the past" Cheshire said. Southerners have a particularly strong feeling about their home" place and land.""
A New York University professor of Africana studies" who is descended from slaves at the Midway plantation" signed on as chief historian of ""Moving Midway.""
Robert Hinton" who had long been interested in researching his family's roots" came back to his home state and the land that his ancestors cultivated for the project.
""As a historian" I had to work very hard to keep my professional facade and not let my emotions get a hold of me when we went to Midway" Hinton said.
Charlie Silver says the mansion's new setting looks like the house was transported back to the 18th century.
Silver said the readjustment has happened easily — the ghosts who haunt Midway even managed to make the move.
The family was concerned that the ghost of Miss Mary Mimi"" Hilliard Hinton" the eccentric storyteller who owned Midway during Cheshire and Silver's childhoods would be vexed. But so far the spirits of Hinton ancestors have seemed pleased" Silver said.
""We haven't had any problems with the ghosts since we moved" but they've been around Silver said. We don't really mind though" because they're family and we're comfortable with them.""
DOCUMENTARY OPENS TODAY
Time: 7:15 p.m."" 9:15 p.m.; weekend matinees at 2:15 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Location: Varsity Theater
Info: www.movingmidway.com
Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.
