"Have you ever played for a house moving before?"

*Photo courtesy of Steve Lemoine

Uncle Lionel Batiste, leaned up against a house on Conti in the shade with the rest of the Treme Brass Band, nodded and wheezed in the affirmative as I shook his hand.

Down the row, people dotted the stoops on each bracketed facade as the train of four old houses crept cautiously along toward their new locations on Bienville.  Batiste may have played for a house moving at some point, but this one was clearly out of the ordinary for the folks on Conti Street.

Orleans Shoring, one of the chief contractors involved in the moving process, brought a crew of employees down to the Footprint on Friday for a second line as the latest set of houses moved out.  The company had a film crew on hand to shoot a tv ad, and I can't say I blame them - the process makes for quite an unusual backdrop.