Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Marriage is a strong bond. In many cases,
Speaker 1: it can be the strongest. John Adams may have been
Speaker 1: one of the architects of the United States and the
Speaker 1: country's second president, but he always found time to write
Speaker 1: to his wife, Abigail, back in Massachusetts. The two corresponded often,
Speaker 1: and when he entered the presidency in Abigail wasn't just
Speaker 1: his first lady. She was also an adviser and a confidante,
Speaker 1: as trusted to him as any cabinet member. Poet Robert
Speaker 1: Browning had to marry his true love, Elizabeth Barrett, in
Speaker 1: secrets because her father did not approve of their courtship.
Speaker 1: Barrett had been sick for a while, and the two
Speaker 1: wrote letters to each other for months before finally meeting
Speaker 1: in eighteen forty five. After their wedding, Barrett's health improved
Speaker 1: so much she gave birth to a son, Robert Wideman
Speaker 1: Barrett Browning. She lived out the remainder of her life
Speaker 1: with her family in Italy, dying in her husband's arms
Speaker 1: at the age of fifty five. These were obviously couples
Speaker 1: who would go to great lengths for each other in
Speaker 1: sickness and in health, for richer or for poor, until
Speaker 1: parted by death. During a troublesome period in a Love
Speaker 1: and forty however, the love women had for their husbands
Speaker 1: was put to the ultimate test, and how they passed
Speaker 1: has become the stuff of legend. Lothair the Third had
Speaker 1: served as King of Germany for years before becoming Holy
Speaker 1: Roman Emperor in eleven thirty three. Although many supported his rule,
Speaker 1: he found particular trouble in the Howen Steffen or Stealfer,
Speaker 1: a noble family that had ruled parts of Germany and Italy.
Speaker 1: For one thing, his father had died in battle against
Speaker 1: them in ten seventy five. They had also refused to
Speaker 1: give up land Lothair believed fell under his rule. The
Speaker 1: Staufer weren't the only ones who rebelled against the new emperor,
Speaker 1: with the help of the Duchy of Austria. The Duchy
Speaker 1: of Swabia and other freelands. A anti king was elected.
Speaker 1: Conrad the Third of Germany. Lothair had launched a military
Speaker 1: campaign against the Stauffer and took control of two of
Speaker 1: their cities in eleven twenty nine. Several years later, as Emperor,
Speaker 1: he defeated them in Sicily when their power had diminished. However,
Speaker 1: his follow up attack on the Normans of Italy did
Speaker 1: not fare well. He was able to lay claim to
Speaker 1: the city of Salerno, but he died on his return
Speaker 1: trip home in eleven thirty seven. As you might imagine,
Speaker 1: the Emperor's death caused upheaval among the Staufer and competing dynasties.
Speaker 1: Conrad the Third was elected King of Germany within the
Speaker 1: Holy Roman Empire, but Henry the Proud, whose velf Dynasy
Speaker 1: he had helped loath there in his campaign against the Stelfer,
Speaker 1: believe that he should have been next in line. So
Speaker 1: these two sides competing for the crown, took up arms,
Speaker 1: their conflict coming to a head in eleven forty in
Speaker 1: the town of Weinsberg, Germany. Within Veinsburg was a castle,
Speaker 1: a fortress that had been under the control of Vilf forces.
Speaker 1: Conrad laid siege to the castle as the Wealth soldiers
Speaker 1: inside waited for help to arrive. Unfortunately, that help had
Speaker 1: also been stopped by Conrad's armies. It didn't take long
Speaker 1: for those inside the castle to see only two options,
Speaker 1: fight or surrender. Realizing they were outmanned, they chose to surrender. Conrad, though,
Speaker 1: was not about to let those who had fought against
Speaker 1: him go without punishment. He planned to reduce the town
Speaker 1: and its castle to rubble and take all the Wealth
Speaker 1: loyalists as prisoners, but he was not an unreasonable man.
Speaker 1: As part of the negotiations, he allowed the women to
Speaker 1: leave with whatever they could carry on their backs. The
Speaker 1: women of the castle began packing that which was most
Speaker 1: important to them, strapping everything to their backs and proceeding
Speaker 1: out of the fortress. Conrad's men, including the Duke, implored
Speaker 1: the king to stop them, but he refused, saying a
Speaker 1: king could not go back on his word. After all,
Speaker 1: he was impressed by their quick thinking because, rather than
Speaker 1: pack up food or clothes or family heirlooms, the women
Speaker 1: of Vinzberg left with their husbands hung over their backs,
Speaker 1: earning the castle its new name Vibratrow, otherwise known as
Speaker 1: women's faith or wifely loyalty. It said that true love
Speaker 1: bears all, and that's a beautiful sentiment, thankfully, though in
Speaker 1: this case, all these ladies had to bear were their husbands.
Speaker 1: The construction of a large building or skyscraper can take
Speaker 1: months or even years. A lot of planning goes into
Speaker 1: creating something as massive as the Empire State Building, or
Speaker 1: as run of the mill as your average office complex.
Speaker 1: Permits must be secured, soil samples must be taken, environmental
Speaker 1: impact studies must be considered, and the land needs to
Speaker 1: be prepared to accept such a heavy structure. It takes
Speaker 1: hundreds of hard working people to complete such a project,
Speaker 1: but it also takes someone to draft the plan that
Speaker 1: will eventually become an office, or a hospital or a
Speaker 1: company headquarters. And sometimes that plan involves tearing down the
Speaker 1: old to make way for the new. But what happens
Speaker 1: when you can't tear down the old. For an architect
Speaker 1: named Kurt, you had to find another way. Kurt was
Speaker 1: born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the turn of
Speaker 1: the twentieth century. He went to college in Strasburg, France,
Speaker 1: before returning to the United States to complete his architectural
Speaker 1: degree at m I T in nineteen o eight. Kurt
Speaker 1: was quite the creative thinker. When he wasn't working as
Speaker 1: a partner at his architecture firm, he was teaching a
Speaker 1: lettering class at the Heron's Wool of Art and Design,
Speaker 1: part of Indiana University. The stock market crash of ninety
Speaker 1: nine hit him and his company hard. The house he
Speaker 1: designed and built for his family had to be sold,
Speaker 1: and commercial construction came to a halt all over the state.
Speaker 1: His firm produced almost no work for quite a while. Then,
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty, a unique opportunity was presented to him.
Speaker 1: Despite the depression. Communications Company Indiana Bell had recently bought
Speaker 1: the Central Union Telephone Company, which provided Indiana with telephone service.
Speaker 1: To accommodate the influx of new employees and brought in
Speaker 1: their footprint within the states, Indiana Bell decided to demolish
Speaker 1: Central Union's headquarters to make room for a brand new building.
Speaker 1: They hired Kurt's firm to design the new construction. There
Speaker 1: was just one problem. Tearing down the old headquarters would
Speaker 1: have wiped out phone service across the state. Instead, Indiana Bell,
Speaker 1: at Kurt's insistence, chose a less messy path, they decided
Speaker 1: to move the building instead. Today, houses, hotels, and even
Speaker 1: churches can be migrated from one location to another using
Speaker 1: hydraulic equipment and large trucks. Oftentimes, the structures are broken
Speaker 1: down into multiple pieces and then reassembled at the new site.
Speaker 1: Back in nineteen thirty, though, the process was a little
Speaker 1: more involved, especially because telephone service could not be interrupted
Speaker 1: even for a minute. But Kurt's idea wasn't to move
Speaker 1: the eighth story eleven thousand ton Headquarters entirely, only to
Speaker 1: shift it out of the way in order to make
Speaker 1: room for an expansion. To facilitate the move, the building
Speaker 1: sat upon a concrete mat, which itself rested on timbers
Speaker 1: made of oregon fur. Every day, with the help of
Speaker 1: a steam engine, six hundred workmen cranked hand powered jacks
Speaker 1: to pivot the structure. The concrete matt would move forward
Speaker 1: on massive hydraulic rollers. As it shifted off of one
Speaker 1: roller at the rear, another was slid in front to
Speaker 1: catch it and keep it upright. Every six turns of
Speaker 1: the jacks, the building would move three eighths of an inch.
Speaker 1: This meant that they were able to shift at fifteen
Speaker 1: inches per hour. Incredibly, all major services flowing to and
Speaker 1: from the headquarters were not interrupted during the four week operation,
Speaker 1: including gas, water and sewage, and telephone service never dropped.
Speaker 1: Now had this been attempted today, the whole building would
Speaker 1: have been evacuated for safety reasons. In ninety though, employees
Speaker 1: of the telephone company needed to be on site to
Speaker 1: keep things running, so the project was completed with everyone
Speaker 1: still working inside. Reports claimed that no one ever felt
Speaker 1: the building moving either. By the time it was all finished,
Speaker 1: the Indiana Bell Building had been rotated by ninety degrees
Speaker 1: and shifted nearly sixty feet south, leaving plenty of room
Speaker 1: for Kurt and his firm to begin work on the addition.
Speaker 1: The architect Kurt, by the way, was none other than
Speaker 1: Kurt Vonnegut, Sr. Father of the author of slaughter House Five,
Speaker 1: Kurt Vonnegut Jr. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
Speaker 1: winning show called Lore which is a podcast, book series,
Speaker 1: and television show and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at the world of Lore dot com. And until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious, Yeah,