It all started when an antiques dealer in the north-eastern US town of Unity was surfing the internet.
Roscoe Tuttle was looking for ephemera that could be associated with his home town. And then the search engine turned up "Unity House".
An idea was born.

Unity House is a redundant skyscraper in the centre of the Potteries.
At one time it housed most of the administration of the local county and city councils - but along came reorganisation, and it was deserted by everybody, remaining just a shell.
It is to be demolished this year.

Bricks to America
Now this bit of history from the land of pots could be on its way to the nation of stars and stripes.
Russell found an enthusiastic response in the town to his idea to save the building for posterity… and rebuild it brick by brick in the centre of Unity.
The town's fathers have not only put together the funds, but have received a positive reaction from the owners of the Potteries building.

Russell said: "We were sure surprised to find in the advertisement that this house had seventeen levels, and we wondered if some lord lived there...?
But then we found out that it is a truly great example of 1960s English architecture; and it would be a helluva shame to see it go.
Unity is not too big a town so we also needed a building like this: a prestigious visitor centre to put the town firmly on the map."

Tourist attraction
There are plans by the local development group to draw the tourists in.
Arli Folop, its chairman, says: "A real style English fish and chip shop and pub on the ground floor would be a big attraction… with English B&B type accommodation on the middle floors, and a panoramic clam restaurant on the top floor. We're famous for our clams..!"

A minor concern is that, because the lifts no longer work in the 240-ft high building, fishermen and women will have to load buckets of clams to be hoisted up to the restaurant kitchens on a rope and pulley - it's feared falling clams could be a safety hazard

Even the state's central authorities are behind the plan. The very high building is just what is needed for the fight on terrorism, as its roof can be used to host a network of cell-phone antennae.

Recycling target saved
Back home, there is relief and enthusiasm for the plan. Russell Eacott, the Unity House demolition manager says: "… as far as I'm concerned, they can have it for free. We were worried that the massive amount of rubble generated by demolition would ruin the city's waste-recycling efforts, so this offer is a godsend."

He continued: "We shall mark the bricks one by one for the Americans, but we won't have the same problem with the windows as most of them have fallen out."
Mr Eacott says the project will take twelve months to complete with a target date of April 1st next year.

What made Unity famous
And what about the ordinary folk of Unity?

According to Greg Rossel (pic right), a presenter on the town's radio station, WERU-FM, the town is famous already: "Bing Crosby passed through here in the 1940s, so we get plenty of famous visitors, but a few more would be ok."

...Do you know Spirit Fethar? He's a big name from here."