VIDALIA — Drivers on Carter Street in Vidalia may have seen an 18-wheeler driving westbound on the eastbound bridge Thursday afternoon.

But it is what the truck was pulling that made the sight interesting — a 100-year-old house.

It’s not uncommon to see mobile homes moved in the Miss-Lou, but the 1908 dogtrot house Ferriday insurance agent Pat Hazlip was having moved from a location on U.S. 61 South, outside Doloroso, to Vidalia is a rare gem in its own right.

Dogtrot houses — usually two small cabins connected by a breezeway and a common roof — were at one time a popular form of dwelling in the South, but Hazlip’s is unique because it had an upstairs.

“Two-story dogtrot houses were reasonably rare,” Hazlip said.

The house had to be parked in the median Thursday before the bridge in Natchez while movers waited for state troopers to stop traffic flow, and it had to be taken on the eastbound bridge because of its size.

“I don’t think it would have fit on the other bridge,” Hazlip said.

The structure was ultimately moved to 204 Advocate Row, where Hazlip said he plans to open a second location of his insurance business once the building is restored.

And it will take a lot of restoration.

To move the building, the roof and two original chimneys had to be removed.

“We had to leave the upstairs with the (tin) roof,” Hazlip said.

Likewise, the house will have to be rewired and have new plumbing to meet current codes.

“We are going to try to restore it to the original look of the dogtrot,” Hazlip said. “We want to maintain the integrity of the building based on how it was built in 1908.”

The first order of business, once the building is placed on blocks, is to put a roof on it.

“We don’t want any rain getting in there,” he said.

But even though it looks its age, the building is solid.

When Hazlip was first looking at buying the building, he asked his brother — who had directed him to it — if he thought it was too far gone, and his brother said the building’s cypress construction had given it lasting power.

In fact, some of the house’s beams — which were built at the building’s original site — still have bark on them.

“The floor joists look like they were just put in,” Hazlip said.

When the restoration is complete, the building will have approximately 2,600 feet of floor space. The downstairs sections will house three offices, a kitchen area and a bathroom, and the upstairs will probably be used for storage, Hazlip said.

Currently, Hazlip is waiting for the state fire marshal to give the building a project number so he can put in a building application with the City of Vidalia.

As soon as he is given the green light, the project is a go, Hazlip said.

“I didn’t want the neighbors to think it was going to remain an eyesore forever,” he said.

“It’s going to look beautiful when we finish.”