“The cabin really is a significant window into our past,” said Historic Hamilton President James Fuhrman. “You can walk into it, stand there, and know that you’re surrounded by the same logs that were put down there early in the 19th century, and look through those same windows.”
The cabin is located in Monument Park, situated between the Fitton Center for Creative Arts and the Soldiers, Sailors and Pioneers Monument. Its significance was discovered in 1964 at 209 Park Ave., as it was about to be destroyed. The owner at the time donated it to the city and it was moved to its current location.
“It’s really not known what this building was for,” Fuhrman said. “It has some double doors that make it seem like maybe it wasn’t a residence — it could have been a shop, like maybe a blacksmith’s shop or feed store, or something commercial. It’s kind of a mystery as far as what it was used for.”
The Pine Ridge Partners will play music of the period from 9 to 10:30 a.m., and volunteers from the Butler County Historical Society will bake free cornbread in the cabin’s dutch oven, and there will be demonstrations about pioneer life by the historical society and Butler County MetroParks. A rededication ceremony will happen at 11 a.m.
Hamilton Councilman Matt Von Stein and about half a dozen other electricians from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers performed free electrical rewiring and lighting work at the cabin.
“You can come and look at the electrical work we did, but you will not be able to see it because it will be daylight out, so it won’t even matter,” Von Stein kiddingly announced at Wednesday’s council meeting. “But you can check out the cabin — they’ve done some wonderful things over there, and it looks really nice.”
The building’s approximately $85,000 rehabilitation was finished this spring by Architectural Reclamation, Inc., of Franklin. The work was funded by MetroParks, the Hamilton Community Foundation, and Historic Hamilton, Fuhrman said.
For those who cannot attend the rededication, the cabin will be open every Saturday through the summer and fall from 9 a.m. to noon, he said.
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