CHINCOTEAGUE -- Two Broadway actors who own and rent a property on Chincoteague were looking for a shed to store bikes. They got more than they bargained for when they decided to purchase an old building on Main Street that caught their eye.

Paul and Louisa Brzozowski of New Jersey are now the owners of the Captain Timothy Hill House, thought to be the oldest house in Chincoteague Island. They moved the house about a half mile down Main Street Monday morning, with the help of Timothy Robinson of Heartland Restoration.

"There are only so many wood structures like this in the world," Robinson said. The log plank structure, which has been dated to circa 1815, has double-compound dovetail joints, which Robinson described as "the finest dovetails in the world." It also had a wood chimney.

The Brzozowskis hired Robinson to restore the Hill House because "he was the only one who said, 'You cannot take this house apart... You don't want to break the bonds that those hands put together,'" Louisa said.

"You feel the person ... you feel what he was thinking," explained Robinson.

The house is named after its first known owner, Captain Timothy Hill, who, as island legend has it, was shipwrecked off the coast of Assateague in the early 19th century. The sailor's way of life that depended so much on the water is literally carved into the house -- Louisa has counted 39 ships etched on its walls.

Five generations of Hills grew up in the small house. Jack Hill was the last to be born there and still resides on Maddox Boulevard with his wife today.

The Captain Timothy Hill House was moved from its site on Deep Hole Road to Main Street in the 1980s by Richard Vesely.

"He said he had every intention to restore it, but life got in the way," Louisa said. The building caught the Brzozowskis' eye as they would pass it on Main Street, and they bought it in December 2009 with the intention of converting it into a storage shed.

"We got inside the house and... we thought, 'This might be something more,'" Louisa said.

"You went inside and you could feel something," agreed Paul.

Following their instin-cts, the couple sent photographs to historic associations and discovered that the house had historical significance.

"I think you have a rare find," said Carl Louns-bury, architectural historian at the Colonial Williamsburg Found-ation.

A crowd, including descendants of the Hills, gathered to watch the house make its way down Main Street to the site adjacent to the Brzozowski's property. They bought the land specifically for the house.

"We wanted to put it in such a way so that it speaks to how Chinco-teague was in the old days," Louisa said.

Now that the Hill House has been moved, Robinson will continue to restore it. This includes restoring the loft and roof, replacing the wood chimney, and eventually furnishing the house with the types of furniture common to its era.

The Brzozowskis hope to have the roof on by Pony Penning in July, and to complete the restoration project by October. They're working on registering the house with the National Historic Register, and plan to open it as a museum that the public can enter from time to time.

"We feel very honored to be doing this," said Louisa. "We are looking at a home that goes right to the core of Chinco-teague."

The Captain Timothy Hill House shows "how a family lived with simple means," said Paul. "There's something (about it) I just think is beautiful."