Once upon a time it was common to move buildings

According to old records the building that houses The Old Mill House Pub, now in at 141 Mill St., wasn’t always at this location. The book A Green and Pleasant Place, written by many individuals, under the direction of the Purple Hills Arts and Heritage Society in 1998, indicates it was on the west side of Mill Street, at 112. This location is now occupied by part of the one-storey portion of the Mitchell Apartments that was added when Ken Mitchell bought it for his honey extraction business. 
It had been originally occupied as a dry goods store by a Mr. Goldstein. In the mid-1920s, the building was purchased by Mr. W. D. Allen an auctioneer. He had the building moved to its present location overseen by a Jonathan Doner. Before this time it was quite common to move buildings. This was an almost full-time occupation for Mr. Doner who I believed lived somewhere in the Stayner area. He had a large collection of screw jacks, long heavy-duty wood timbers, eight-inch round logs, cables, chains, and a horse-powered capstan (see drawing).
Doner and his helpers would have jacked up the building with his screw jacks. They would position two long wood timbers, lengthways under the building. He would then jack up the timbers approximately 10 inches and place several eight-inch logs to use as rollers at intervals of about six to eight feet. The building was now ready to roll.
The capstan would now be chained to utility poles or trees and the cable that wrapped around it was connected to the building. A team of horses was then hooked to the arm of the capstan and the horse owner would then drive them around in a circle. This would substantially increase their pulling power to move the building. At the same time, the helpers would pick up the back rollers and bring them around to the front. When they got to the street the building was turned 90 degrees and the capstan move to the north and again chained down. When the building was in front of its new location, they then reversed the turning process that was used at the beginning. This was a bit tricky, as they had to be sure that the rollers were positioned properly to turn the building the required ninety degrees to line it up with its final resting place. With the capstan moved again they then pulled it over the prepared foundation and the job was done. As mentioned moving entire buildings were common in those days, but in later years with more utility wires, it became too expensive. There also may have been some concern over the safety of the workers.
Mr. Allen operated a movie theatre here for a short time then sold it in 1927 to an Oscar Paddison as a bakeshop. Since then there have been many owners. Grant Macdonald, Harold Carscadden, Frank Soules, Herb and Kay Newell, Vince Cahoon. All these owners operated it as a bakeshop and snack bar and perhaps an ice cream parlour. About 1974, Sylvia Swan changed it to a restaurant and since then there have been several different owners. It presently operates as The Old Mill House Pub.