The Appleyard house will soon be on the move for the third time in its more than 100-year history.
At a closed-door meeting earlier this month, Port Moody council voted to move the house from its current location at 126 Kyle St. to a plot directly beside the Port Moody Arts Centre at 2425 St. Johns St., with the two buildings to be connected by a corridor.
Coun. Gerry Nuttall, who chairs the arts and culture committee, said the move will preserve the Kyle Street land for future use.
"But the main impetus for it being moved is it will fit better into the current Arts Centre Society's plans, because they wouldn't have to have staffing at two locations."
Nuttall said the society will save up to $65,000 annually by operating the two buildings as one.
The cost to move the building across the street is only slightly higher than the already anticipated cost of moving the house further north on the Kyle Street lot, once a foundation had been built, Nuttall added.
The Appleyard house was first moved in December 2005, when Fred Soofi took it from its original home at 2717 Clarke St., near the Moody Street overpass, to a lot across the road, where it was turned into a pizza restaurant.
Several years later it was purchased by the provincial government to make way for the Evergreen Line. The 1910 home was then donated to the city of Port Moody to help preserve its architectural heritage, and it was moved to Kyle Street last July.
"It's really an excellent suggestion and I think it's a great idea," Nuttall said. "There are a lot of advantages."
Staff are still in the project planning and design stage for the new location and the move will require another development variance permit.
It's not known yet when the move will take place, but the project has to be finished by the end of the year to qualify for the nearly $481,000 federal grant for the project, which was announced in February.
