POLAND – A turn-of-the-century home created by Poland’s first family escaped demolition Monday with a half-mile move.

Only two weeks ago, the grand home built by a son of Poland Spring Water founder Hiram Ricker was due to be razed to make room for work on Route 26.

“We thought we were going to lose it,” said Mike Caouette, vice president of the Poland Spring Preservation Society.

Then everything came together.

State transportation officials agreed to contribute the money it had planned to spend on tearing the house down to its relocation. Stephen Kinney of Range Hill Road agreed to find room on his property for the house and pour a foundation.

By 10 a.m. Monday, traffic was halted on Carpenter Road – near the intersection of routes 26 and 122 – and the home began its slow journey. Eventually, it climbed Carpenter Road and turned right onto Range Hill Road.

Gawkers, some with cameras and binoculars, parked along the route to watch the procession.

“It’s historic,” said John Harris, a retiree who joined a crowd on Carpenter Road to watch the house make its climb.

The preservation society leaders believe the interest will continue.

By next summer, it plans to conduct tours through the three-story historic house. The subjects will be Alvan Bolster Ricker, the water mogul’s second son, and Alvan’s second wife, Jane Jeffrey Ricker.

The husband and wife’s personal histories and their home’s beauty combined to make the house too important to raze, Caouette said.

Alvan Ricker had overseen the Poland Spring Resort’s dining services and farms.

Jane Ricker was an extraordinary woman in her own right, Caouette said.

In the years before World War I, the Englishwoman came to the U.S. to care for family members and became a trained nurse. When the U.S. joined the war, she joined the American Red Cross.

While serving in Europe, she was wounded by shrapnel that severed her spine, said Jason Libby, executive director of the Preservation Society. When she came home, she was awarded the Legion of Honor and became only the third woman to receive the Distinguished Service Cross for her work.

Alvan died in 1933. Jane lived until 1960. Her estate left money to the town to build the Alvan Bolster Ricker Memorial Library.

Meanwhile, the house they shared had become a boarding house.

As a boy, Caouette visited the place and he returned as an adult.

“It’s one of the finest homes in the town of Poland,” he said. The house has hardwood floors, solid cherry doors with glass knobs, crown moldings and a grand fireplace in the main parlor.

Libby noted, “We want to share it with the community.”