Vintage: Move it, move it!!! Relocating houses, streets and even a submarine around the city.

It’s that time of year when everyone and everything is in flux, Chicago.

Take, for example, the return this week of the recently restored pair of lion sculptures that guard the Art Institute’s Michigan Avenue entrance.

After 128 years exposed to the elements, the bronze statues were transported aboard a truck in June to Forest Park where Conservation of Sculpture and Objects Studio gave the iconic pieces “conservation treatment that included steam cleaning, laser cleaning, and applying a special protective wax coating.” (See photos of some of that work here.)

So, I wondered, what other interesting objects have been moved in and around the city through the years? Read on to see what I discovered in the Tribune’s archives — and thanks to photo editor Andrew Johnston for finding these awesome vintage snapshots!

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Thanks for reading. See you next week!

— Kori Rumore, visual reporter

Chicago history timeline | Puzzles & Games | 175 years of Tribune history in 100 front pages | Did you miss last week’s Vintage newsletter? Read it here. | Did a shark attack occur in Lake Michigan? Here’s what Tribune reporters discovered in the 1970s.

Chicago’s streets: Raised out of the mud

Overcoming the city’s sludgy handicap took decades, required raising the grade level upward of 14 feet, and made Chicago the first American city with a comprehensive sewer system.

Raising Chicago out of the mud >>>

In the battle against cholera, a creative city engineer raised streets, tunneled into the lake and reversed the river >>>

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U-505: Maneuvered into the Museum of Science and Industry

Bringing the German submarine, which was captured near Africa in 1944, to land was a “major engineering feat,” the Tribune reported in 1954.

Aug. 13, 1954: U-505 Landed! First sub in history pulled ashore >>>

Photos: More than 70 years ago, the U.S. captured a German submarine. Here’s a look at how it got to Chicago. >>>

Veterans recall capture of U-505 German submarine in WWII >>>

Henry B. Clarke house: Lifted above ‘L’ tracks and transported 32 blocks

The oldest surviving house in Chicago was actually moved twice — the latest in 1977. “Never before has such an elaborate and logistically tricky plan been devised to save and enhance an official city landmark,” Tribune architecture critic Paul Gapp wrote that same year.

Aug. 20, 1977: Henry B. Clarke mansion — oldest house in Chicago — to become a showplace >>>

Scraps from past tell story of city’s oldest structure >>>

Chicagology: Henry B. Clarke house >>>

Clarke house tours reflect hard daily life in the 1800s >>>

Viking ship replica: World’s Fair relic sent to the suburbs

“The trip from Lincoln Park Zoo to West Chicago in DuPage County is only 35 miles, but for an old Viking ship, it is proving to be a journey nearly as daunting as crossing the Atlantic Ocean,” Tribune reporter William Mullen wrote in 1994.

Viking ship’s new voyage convoluted under Eric the Red-tape >>>

History of the ship >>>

Ernest Hemingway’s ‘interim’ house: Bought for $1 to avoid demolition

“After months of preparation and considerable debate over the home’s landmark value in a village that already boasts two noted Hemingway houses, the white Gothic-revival home finally embarked on its slow roll through town,” the Tribune reported in 1999.

It generated more brouhaha than anyone expected.

House bids a farewell, also rises at a new site >>>

Hemingway slept here: The ‘Interim’ house has an intriguing history >>>

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