Johnson County Museum’s all-electric house to travel to King Louie site

The county museum’s all-electric house will arrive at its new home at the former King Louie building with an impressive flourish April 13.

The two-bedroom ranch will get a stately 10-12 hour parade of sorts through some of the main thoroughfares of Shawnee, Merriam, Mission and Overland Park before workers set it down inside what will be the Johnson County Arts and Heritage Center. By the time it arrives, it will have traveled nine miles at speeds reaching 3 to 5 mph. .

County officials and general contractor McCownGordon Construction laid out the plan for moving the museum, currently at 6305 Lackman Road, to the former bowling alley and ice rink at 8788 Metcalf Ave.

The majority of the move will take place at night to minimize disruption along the route, said Josh Vogel of McCownGordon. The 84- by 25-foot house will begin its journey at 7 p.m. April 12, moving south on Lackman on steel beams and dollies before making a left to head east on Shawnee Mission Parkway. Then it will head south on Metcalf Avenue. Once at the destination, the house will be eased down a ramp through the open south wall of the building to become the first museum item to take its place inside.

The journey will mean some intermittent lane closures, since the house will occupy about three lanes. The county will provide traffic updates on Facebook and Twitter once the move gets underway. It is expected to arrive at its new home around 7 a.m., but that is a rough estimate and could change, officials said.

Although the 2,150-square-foot home, including garage, is small by modern new-home standards, moving it will be a complex undertaking requiring the cooperation of police and county law enforcement at the intersections and Kansas City Power and Light to deal with overhead lines. The move will cost the county just over $267,000.

When the house is loaded onto the dollies, it will be about 25 feet tall, said Trevor Patton, of Patton House and Building Movers, which is doing the move. Most overhead traffic signals and some power lines are about 16 feet off the ground.

Some 25 traffic signals will have to be taken down or pulled out of the way to get the house through. KCP&L will be in charge of hoisting or moving 30 to 40 power lines, Patton said. Two or three residents are expected to temporarily lose power and they’ll get a notification from KCP&L.

The county will send out 3,000 postcards to residents and businesses along the route to let them know about the temporary road closures. They’ve also created a special web page for updates, www.jocogov.org/housemove

The Johnson County Museum will be closed during the move, April 11-13.

The all-electric house, built in 1953 by Kansas City Power & Light, is a major part of the county museum’s collection. It features what were state-of-the-art electrical systems in the postwar suburban building boom.

The move next week will be a case of history repeatinsg itself. The first time the house was moved was in 1994, when it went to the museum site in Shawnee from its original street in Prairie Village. When it was moved the first time, the garage was detached and moved separately. Improvements in moving technology since then allow the garage and house to remain attached this time, which may minimize the risk of damage, said Vogel.

The White Haven Motor Lodge sign, once a distinctive neon feature along Metcalf Avenue, will be installed in the building at about the same time, said Mindi Love, museum director. The sign has been restored to working condition and will be turned on for the opening of the center.

When the Arts and Heritage Center opens in early 2017, it will be a major reconfiguration of museum space, Love said. Although the museum only gains about 3,000 square feet from the move, the space will be much more flexible than the warren of hallways dividing up the current building, she said.

Once in the King Louie, the all-electric house will be surrounded by an exhibit telling the story of the county from its early days, before white settlers. The current Kidscape will more than double in size, from 1,500 to 3,500 square feet, Love said, and will better combine displays of urban, suburban and rural living in the county’s history.

Another gallery space will be devoted to changing exhibits, she said.

By way of educating the public about the changes, the museum staff has installed a special exhibit on the King Louie featuring ABC’s clips from bowling tournaments held there in the 1970s, as well as newspaper articles about the alley’s founders, Victor and Morris Lerner, bowling gear, ashtrays and other items with the King Louie logo. That exhibit will run through Sept. 5.

The King Louie complex opened in 1959 and was a local landmark for years as bowling gained respectability after World War II. In 1966 it was expanded to include an ice rink. The building, with its entrance spire and accordion roof, is considered a good local example of Googie modern architecture popular at the dawn of the space age. But as the population moved south, attendance dropped off.

The business closed in 2009 and was purchased by the county in 2011. After years of debate, county commissioners decided to convert it into space for the museum and parks district for exhibits, Theatre In the Park performances and theater and arts workshops. It will also become a spot for advance voting.

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 5:11 PM.