AMHERST — A century-old home on Sunset Avenue will be making its way to South Amherst beginning late Tuesday night.

The two-story yellow clapboard residence at 174 Sunset, built around 1923, will be moved by developer Barry Roberts, principal of Fearing Sunset LLC, starting around 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Its journey to the vacant lot at 175 West St., near the intersection with Shays Street, by 6 a.m. Wednesday will be via Massachusetts Avenue, North Pleasant Street, East Pleasant Street and South Pleasant Street.

People living along those roads may experience service interruption to their electricity, cable, phone and internet service.

The move is to make way for a 17-unit townhouse development that is underway at the corner of Sunset Avenue and Fearing Street, across from the Southwest Area of the University of Massachusetts campus, including the high-rise dormitories. Foundation work has begun. 

This is the second historic home moved from the site. The other home, at 164 Sunset, was moved to 22 North Maple St., in front of the Elaine Center at Hadley nursing home, last August.

Roberts has other experience in moving homes. In 2021, he moved a home South Pleasant Street on the Amherst College campus to Baker Street.

The latest home’s first occupant, according to public records, may have been Luther Banta, who taught poultry husbandry at the university, when it was the Massachusetts Agricultural College, from 1918 until the 1950s.

Fearing Sunset LLC purchased the properties on which the townhouses are being built in December 2020 for a combined $1.07 million. 

Staff Writer Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com. ]]>