The first home was moved Thursday morning to make way for a new Kroger Marketplace shopping center near Oak Ridge Turnpike and Illinois Avenue.
Ten more houses on Robin Lane and Iris Circle are ready to move, and a total of 25 have to be relocated, said Micheal Mills of M&M House Movers in Harrogate. Mills hopes to move them all by March 1.
The small, brown home moved Thursday was taken to a 13-acre farm on Blair Road in Roane County, Mills said. The man who owns the farm has purchased two of the Oak Ridge homes for his family to use on the farm.
The 11-mile drive was expected to take about three hours. The man driving the moving truck Thursday, Sonny Asher of New Way House Moving in Harrogate, which is working with M&M, said each home weighs about 20 to 30 tons.