SHACKS ON RACKS In the throes of a housing crisis, one Jackson nonprofit is saving old homes … on tractor trailers BY CLAIRE CELLA PHOTOS BY RYAN DORGAN When Esther Judge-Lennox was 10 years old, she stood on the side of the interstate near Dillon, Montana, watching with wide eyes as a 274-ton, 40-by-90-foot mansion lumbered by on the bed of a semi-trailer. It was the Roe Mansion, built in 1912, and moved from Ted Turner’s ranch south of Bozeman to the University of Montana Western in 1998. The move allowed the mansion, which had lain dormant for years, to be restored and given new life as part of the university’s administrative offices. Twenty years later, that memory resurfaced as inspiration for Judge-Lennox to start her own venture, a nonprofit moving houses in Jackson, Wyoming. She calls it Shacks on Racks. In 2018, she and her husband Philip moved their own 1941 craftsman house for $12,000 from downtown Jackson to their current property off U.S. Highway 89. They’ve since fixed it up and now use it as a rental property specifically to house
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those serving Jackson’s workforce. The craftsman’s move would be the first of many relocations Judge-Lennox would spearhead in attempt to alleviate the town’s growing housing crisis. The business model for Shacks on Racks is based in service (in fact, Judge-Lennox hasn’t even started charging her clients yet for her time). Judge-Lennox begins by mining a log of the town’s demolition permits—a list that grows longer every day as Jackson lots are bought for redevelopment. When she sees a demolition permit for a historically significant structure or one that is worthy of relocation, she posts a photo of the structure to her Instagram account, scrawling across the image the word “Free.” That’s right. Homes up for demolition are free; they just need to be moved to another site. When interested parties
Esther Judge-Lennox, the mind behind the nonprofit Shacks on Racks, stands in front of a historic 1930s home she helped move to the National Elk Refuge in July 2020, where it will serve as employee housing.
