DES MOINES, Iowa  —  Two unwanted homes in the Drake neighborhood are moving closer to taking on a new life.

The homes were moved overnight earlier this week from the Drake area to the campus of The Kathedral in Sherman Hill. On Friday, they are being set on their new foundations.

The homes were built a century ago to house students at Drake. Now, they will be turned into residence halls for young men and women coming to Des Moines for work and school.

Officials with The Kathedral say it’s important for them to save historic buildings to join their historic church campus.

“A few years ago we moved the filling station from the East Village onto the campus, and how a couple homes, and there’s been several inserts into the community recently and it’s really neat because they’re not new homes, they’re historic, so they match the look and feel of the neighborhood,” said Josh Loomis.

The site where the houses formerly sat will be developed into a hotel and shopping district.