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Soldiers relocate Brisbane's Eternal Flame from the cenotaph on Thursday to begin a "huge transformation of Anzac Square".

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk says he is confident Brisbanes Eternal Flame will be safe from vandals during its temporary relocation while the CBD cenotaph is renovated.

On Thursday, the flame was moved to a small fenced plot in Anzac Square, about 25 metres away the Ann Street site it has occupied since 1930.

While the cenotaph flame was protected by locked gates and is in full view of Ann Street, the temporary location is down the slope in Anzac Square behind a fence only about a metre high.

Brisbanes Eternal Flame has been temporarily moved from the Ann Street site it has occupied since 1930. Photo: Bradley Kanaris

I think people will respect the flame, what it means and obviously the reality is we have some CCTV coverage as well, Cr Quirk said.

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Well be watching, well be making sure the respect that ought to be maintained for this flame is maintained.

With a small crowd in attendance, including senior veterans, Corporal Christopher Purdie was given the honour of taking a burner from the cenotaph, walking down its steps and lighting the fire at the new location.

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Brisbane's Eternal Flame in temporary new home

Theres a big piece of eastern Connecticut Colonial-era history right in Washington. And its for sale.

What is known as the Avery Homestead was moved piece by piece from Preston during the middle of the last decade and became the home of the Lovelace family, the 250-plus-year-old dwelling merged impeccably with a modern addition on Upper Church Hill Road. The home, which has 10 rooms, four bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths and sits on almost 13 acres of pristine countryside, is listed for $2.195 million. Peter Klemm of Klemm Real Estate is the listing agent.

This quintessential gentlemans farm entails all the factors that represent the romance of Litchfield County living, said Mr. Klemm. The house offers the best of both the old and new world. It provides the authenticity, charm and character of an antique house with the amenities and reliability of modern construction.

Originally built in 1755 by Capt. John Avery for his son, John Avery Jr., and his new bride in Preston, the home was carefully dismantled, relocated and rebuilt in Washington. The interior of the main house has been restored to its original state in 1755, while the new addition includes a modern kitchen with high-end appliances and a large family living area that provides stunning views of the property.

Vermont soapstone was tastefully used for the kitchens countertops and center island. The kitchen also has an array of Wolf appliances, including the gas range, conventional and microwave ovens, as well as both a Subzero commercial-size refrigerator/freezer and separate wine-cooler. A living area off of the kitchen and dining room incorporated original wood beams from the Avery Homestead.

A main keeping room features original exposed post and beams and oak wide board paneling and floorboards.

The room has a massive stone fireplace, with a center beehive oven, that is the focal point of the room. The two front rooms of the house, one currently used as a music room and the other as a formal dining area, showcase impressive (especially for the era in which the house was originally built) paneled walls and floorboards.

Each of the front rooms has its own fireplace built with the original brick.

The front staircase of the home conceals a small secret that had been hidden for nearly 300 years. When the staircase was being removed during the dismantling of the house, the original builders (John Averys) signature, written in chalk, was discovered on the inside of the staircase.

The house has tall ceilings for its pre-Revolutionary War period and intricately carved paneled walls that reflect the wealth of its original builder, a well-to-do and respected farmer, goldsmith and clockmaker. Continued...

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Avery Homestead, a Relocated Restoration, on the Market

When Ann Marohn led the first tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park, Ill., 40 years ago, she entered through a garage on the building's south side. Green shag carpets, water-damaged walls and uneven floors greeted visitors inside.

"All of the rooms needed a great deal of work," Marohn, 78, said recently.

A middle-school English teacher who had developed an interest in Wright, Marohn was selected to lead that first tour in July, 1974, after the building came under public ownership. She typed up some notes and led visitors into a maze of a building that over the next dozen years would be meticulously restored.

"I just tried to tell the story I knew and tell them what the house would ultimately look like," said Marohn, who still conducts tours.

Marohn has been part of a celebration in connection with the home marking marking 40 years of tours.

The restoration of the Home and Studio, a massive volunteer-led effort that took 13 years, also started in 1974, said John Thorpe, 69, one of three architects who led the restoration.

He and other volunteers worked to restore the 1889 building to the way it looked in 1909, the last year Wright lived there, Thorpe said.

Wright used the Home and Studio as a testing ground while developing and refining the unique architectural style that would come to be known as the Prairie School of Architecture, Thorpe said.

A group of around 10 volunteers gathered most Saturday mornings to help restore the home, Thorpe said.

The restoration cost about $2.5 million, Thorpe said, noting the amount was in 1987 dollars and would be much more in today's dollars.

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Frank Lloyd Wright home marks 40 years of tours

Arlington, Va.

A historic plantation originally built as a monument to George Washington overlooking the nations capital, a site that later was home to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and 63 slaves, will be restored to its historical appearance using a $12.3 million gift from a wealthy history buff.

David Rubenstein, a billionaire history buff and co-founder of The Carlyle Group, said July 17 he is giving the National Park Foundation the funds needed for a full restoration of the historic house, grounds and slave quarters to show visitors how they appeared in 1860, as well as an overhaul of the sites museum exhibits. Rubenstein said the site crowns the most sacred land in the country, Arlington National Cemetery, but needed major repairs.

Rubenstein also has given multimillion-dollar gifts in recent years to restore the Washington Monument, the first presidents Mount Vernon estate and Thomas Jeffersons home at Monticello, including a recreation of its historic slave quarters.

The goal is to remind people of American history, Rubenstein said. I think when youre restoring history, you should remind people of the good and the bad.

Arlington House, as it is known, was built between 1802 and 1818 by Washingtons step-grandson, George Washington Parke Custis and his slaves on a hilltop overlooking the new capital city and the Potomac River. Lee later married into the family, and it became his familys plantation estate.

After Lee resigned from the Union army and joined the Confederacy, Union troops captured the estate during the Civil War and made it their military headquarters to defend Washington from Virginia. Graffiti from Civil War soldiers is still visible in the mansions attic.

After the war, the area became a community for emancipated slaves, and Union troops began burying their war dead on the grounds, in part to prevent Lee from returning. It eventually became Arlington National Cemetery, the burial site for many soldiers as well as President John F. Kennedy.

The 200-year-old house and grounds symbolize the nations reconciliation after the Civil War, said National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis, but it is in poor condition.

The roof leaks inside, and the climate control system is so unstable some artwork cant be displayed. Decorative paint on the buildings facade is peeling away. Exhibits in a nearby museum building havent been updated in 30 years. The needs are part of an $11 billion backlog on maintenance across the national parks.

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Gift to restore Robert E. Lees home

An elderly couple who ran a pair of nonprofit faith-based ministries had a garage fire that severely damaged their Orlando house and everything in it. But they did have a lot of good karma stored up, which paid off.

When a fire struck the small Orlando home of Jeaney and Wayne Brooks, destroying their cars and leaving a sooty, acrid stench on everything they owned, they had no insurance to pay for repairs.

The couple both volunteer pastors at Discovery Church had only one thing going for them: karma.

The fire in late April was largely limited to the garage, but it was so hot it melted their vehicles and much of the wiring in the attic. Smoke blackened the attic and permeated every room.

"Both of us are seniors," Jeaney Brooks says. "We can't walk very well, and we both have breathing issues. We had let our homeowner's insurance lapse a couple of years earlier because we couldn't afford the premiums, so we couldn't fix anything."

At 69 and 71, the Brookses both have health issues. He suffers emphysema; she has apnea. The latter requires her to use a breathing machine each night so her oxygen levels don't drop to dangerous levels.

Despite those problems, they figured they had no choice but to continue living in a burned-out home with no functioning air conditioning. They had no idea there was a small army of volunteers about to come to their rescue.

In their years of working for a prison ministry and providing Christian counseling to women battling addiction, they had built up a reserve of good will. So, too, had Jeaney Brooks' son, Sam Burton, 40, who runs a tree-trimming service and has worked a gamut of construction jobs. Three years ago, he had joined the church's Discovery in Motion team to do community-service work. He'd help clear lots, shape landscaping, remove dead trees. He was a leader on a Holden Heights neighborhood-revitalization project.

"Sam is a standout," says Bill Schneider, 55, who spearheads the Discovery in Motion team. "He just shows up and works hard, and he's always volunteering his company's services."

At first, Burton tried to fix his mother and stepfather's home himself. But it quickly became obvious the project was too big for one person. Then Schneider and his wife, Liz Wenta, learned of the fire and reached out to a small community of contractors known for their generous hearts.

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Couple find good karma helps them heal | Video

Gail Cooper (left) and Kora Sevier have applied colours to the W.H. Falding house that accentuate the homes unique architectural features.

image credit: Grant Granger/NewsLeader

A facelift every 30 years or so is a good idea, especially at 123 years old.

The cute cottage that became the first home in New Westminster to receive heritage designation, and inspired formation of the New Westminster Heritage Preservation Society (NWHPS), now has a fresh look.

In the early 1980s, a group of residents decided to follow the example of fellow heritage enthusiasts in Victoria. They bought the gingerbread house at 431 Fourth St., built by B.C. Supreme Court registrar W.H. Falding in 1891. The plan was to restore it, resell it and reinvest the funds into buying and restoring others.

In 1985, it became the first home in the city to be designated as heritage. The list has since increased to 33, with plans in the works for more in the next year.

A huge amount of time, money and effort was put into making the cottage look beautiful by that original collection of idealists. But by the time they were done the real estate market had plunged and any dream of profit didnt pan out. The group eventually sold the home to Gail Cooper and her husband, put their hammers away and became heritage activists instead.

Those passionate preservationists eventually formed the New Westminster Heritage Foundation in 1992. One of its missions is to raise funds for an annual building grants program. Every year since 1997, thanks to its annual home tour, the society puts $10,000 toward the foundation which the city matches. The foundation doles out the $20,000 to homeowners to help them with their heritage restoration projects. In those 17 years, the foundation has given out 64 grants, including three for 2014.

The money is meant for those little historical extras that become quite costly. Theyre often projects that are lower priority in older homes.

If a person was going to spend some money and recreate some mouldings, that would be a nice thing to do but that wouldnt be as critical as someones house is leaking, said Ethel Field, a director of the heritage foundation who coordinates the grant giving.

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Heritage home comes full circle

Couple joins event with restoration project

Robyn and Rusty van Rossman dont yet have a formal name for the 136-year-old historic home theyre restoring on Fifth Avenue in Albanys Hackleman Historic District.

They do, however, have their own monikers for some of their projects to date.

Theres the Spiral of Idiocy in the backyard, for instance: a brick planter whose graceful curves initially threatened to get out of hand. Visitors can get there by treading the Path of Stupidity, giant flagstones the couple hauled into place, with great effort, by themselves. The Doorway to Death at the rear of the home currently leads to a steep drop until the couple can put in a deck.

Then theres the house itself, which will be part of Albanys 37th annual Tour of Historic Homes, running 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 26. Sometimes, the two say, they feel it should fall into a similar category.

Robyn remembers the day she and Rusty learned the owner had accepted the lowball offer theyd casually thrown out.

We looked at each other and said, Now what do we do? she said with a wry laugh.

That was in 2006. The couple have since ripped out carpets, refinished floors, pulled down walls, removed windows and done many other odd jobs to reduce what was once three separate apartments to a livable space for two empty-nesters.

They have more work to do yet, which visitors will be able to see as they make the tour. Its a project house, Rusty explained, which means other do-it-yourselfers can see it really is possible to live and work in a home thats still under restoration.

Its painful, he said, but it gets done.

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Historic homes open doors to tour

Its Bob Dole vs. the home-school lobby, round two.

This marks the second time the former senator will square off against Mike Farris, president of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, on the same issue: an international treaty on rights for people with disabilities.

Farris mounted a public campaign against the treaty when the Senate took it up in 2012, fanning concerns among prominent conservatives like Rick Santorum and the Heritage Foundation that it could infringe on the rights of parents whose children have disabilities, threaten states rights and become a legal tool for pro-choice advocates pushing against restrictive abortion laws.

Proponents maintained that the treaty would have no effect on American law, but the detractors proved stronger: The treaty fell short of being ratified by five votes.

(PHOTOS: Bob Dole returns to Kansas)

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to approve the treaty Tuesday morning, but its not clear if it has enough votes to pass the full Senate.

Dole, who was injured while fighting in World War II and had been struggling with his health at the time of the vote, was on the Senate floor in a wheelchair when it failed.

Hes quite a machine, Dole said of Farris.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the treaty Tuesday morning, largely along party lines. Two Republicans Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) voted with committee Democrats in favor of the treaty.

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Bob Dole battles home-schoolers

When Dewey Sampson moved to a small Victorian on 14th Street SE in 2010, he knew he had moved to a unique stretch of Anacostia. The block between V and U streets was the site of the Old Market Square, a gathering place in the historic community, and the price for his home was impossible to pass on for what he wanted with his wife.

But the house next door was an abandoned, dilapidated mess, so much of one that Sampson was intent on doing something about it.

We had some squatter issues, things of that nature, Sampson said of the house, which was known to serve as a crack den. He added that he once considered buying the house: I didnt really feel comfortable with my wife being around those situations. So, I definitely had to call and got the house boarded up.

Then, a stroke of luck. The LEnfant Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving historic properties, bought the run-down house for $112,000 and fully renovated it. The organization, known for offering tax incentives to owners of historic properties around the city, was looking for a place to start a new rehabilitation program, and 2010 14th St. SE, the source of Sampsons angst, was a perfect fit. The group will now sell the house at market rate and use the profit to invest in more properties around the city.

All the while, it has restored a bit of pride to a neighborhood whose name alone still carries a certain stigma in Washington.

On Tuesday, representatives from the organization, D.C. officials and residents will mark the houses transformation with a ribbon-cutting and ceremony. But by that time, the hardest part will be over.

Were sort of like the emergency room of historic buildings, Carol Goldman, the trusts president, said. She added that the new initiative, known as a revolving fund program, represents a shift in how the Trust identifies preservation projects. For years, the group has largely encouraged property donations and volunteer easements to foster preservation. The new program was initially funded by a $50,000 grant from a Connecticut foundation.

The group, which holds the most historic easements in the country, has bought properties to renovate in other places around the United States, but the Anacostia home was its first in the District. To assess the right deal, the nonprofit group solicited community input about which properties it should buy and is acquiring its next set of homes to renovate.

Anacostia was clearly the place to launch this because they had these things sitting, Goldman said, referring to the swath of historic houses in the community. A number of them were crack dens. Lots of syringes. For decades. We thought, boy, if we can figure out a way to use our nonprofit funding mechanisms to rehab these buildings and put them back and stabilize and revitalize the neighborhood, thats really good use of the trust and funding partners, our nonprofit dollars.

Greta Fuller, an advisory neighborhood commissioner for that part of the neighborhood and a member of the Historic Anacostia Preservation Society, said she has welcomed the trusts presence in the community.

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Old homes restoration helps to restore pride in Anacostia

A Cambridge landmark is getting a makeover.

Restoration work is scheduled to begin in mid August on the Armstrong Covered Bridge, which has called the City Park home since the late 1960s.

The city administration awarded the contract for the work earlier this year to Cambridge-based Crossroads Construction.

Workers first assessed the bridge, determining what timbers required replacement. An order was then made by the contractor to a specialized company for the custom prepared wood.

Once the contractor receives the wood, the bridge will be closed to foot traffic and restoration work will begin. A simulated dark-colored cedar shingle roof will replace the current tin roof, itself a replacement of the original. Side boards, cross braces and beams will be replaced as needed.

No foundation work is planned, Sherry said. The metal braces beneath the bridge will be retained.

The work will not alter the dimensions of the bridge, Sherry said, approximately 75 feet long, 13 feet wide and 17 feet high at the peak of the roof.

The contract calls for the work to be completed by May 3, 2015. However, the contractor anticipates completing the work within a 90-day window.

Total cost of the project is approximately $200,000. The local match is $30,000, to be taken from the Continuous Street Improvement Fund line item.

Funding for the work comes through the Ohio Department of Transportation via the National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation Program.

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Restoration work planned for Armstrong Covered Bridge, a Cambridge landmark