R-TV House gets a new life

By Lina Miller
J-School Web reporter

photos by Neel Deshpande

The house at 730 Eddy, former home of the Radio-Television Department, will be jacked up and moved to a new location.

The basement where scores of students edited video is now a pile of rubble.

The Eddy Street house that was once the home of the Radio-Television Department has been sold at auction and will soon be moved to the Blue Mountain area. 

Mary Morrison and her husband, Nick Baker, who both work at UM, purchased the house at 730 Eddy for $2,000 during the second round of bidding. Morrison works with the Rural Institute at UM; Baker works for UM's disability services. Morrison said she and her husband wanted a larger house and liked the idea of saving one of the University’s historic buildings.

“We really like the house,” Morrison said. “And we really like the idea of recycling and reusing the property.”

That sentiment is shared by faculty who occupied the building before the university decided to to sell it.

“I was happy that they weren’t going to tear it down,” said Ray Ekness, chair of the R-TV Department. “Students have great memories of their times there.”

To make way for the new law school expansion, the old R-TV building was sold on the condition that the new owners would pay to move the house to a new area.

“It is up to the owner to hire a mover, get it ready, and haul it away,” said Jameel Chaudhry, campus architect.

Morrison and Baker decided to move the house to the Blue Mountain area after they failed to find two adjacent city lots inside the Missoula city limits.

“The footprint of the house requires two city lots,” Morrison said. “And it is a lot more difficult to find that in Missoula.”

Currently, the house is being prepared for the move. The house must be lifted off the foundation and weighed before the proper permits can be collected, Morrison said.

“It should be moved within the next week to 10 days,” she said. “But there isn’t a definite date set yet.”

Once the house lands in its new home, Morrison said it will need a lot of work to bring it back up to code.       

“With all good projects there’s a mix of emotion,” Morrison said. “We’re excited and nervous about what’s to come.”

Although this marks the beginning of the whole School of Journalism to be under one roof in Don Anderson Hall, Ekness said he will hold onto the fond memories of leaky ceilings, ant infestations, and students working through the night in the basement of 730 Eddy.

“It was a great time, a great location, a great symbol,” Ekness said. “We became a family at 730 Eddy.”

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