The residents say that they prefer for the original look and feel of the cabin to be preserved, not necessarily the original materials themselves, and that the presence of siding, while perhaps historically accurate, takes away from the memories and feel of the log cabin that has become a citywide treasure.
Jim Fuhrman, president of Historic Hamilton, Inc., said in an email to the Journal-News that few people are aware of the historical fact that log homes were covered with clapboard siding to preserve them from the elements, and many have a preconceived notion of what a log cabin should look like.
Many of the Facebook commenters have called for the project to be scrapped and started over, with a new cabin that maintains the aesthetic of the historic cabin without the actual logs, but Fuhrman said that “to Historic Hamilton and its partners that would not be an acceptable option.”
“We prefer to protect the cabin’s most vulnerable logs the same way they had been protected for its first 160 years — with historically accurate white oak clapboard siding, attached with hand-forged period nails,” he wrote to the Journal-News. “Viewed from the inside (which we encourage every Hamiltonian to do when the work is finished), marks from the craftsman’s tools, two centuries old, will still be visible, and they will be there far into the future because, and only because, those logs were protected rather than left to deteriorate for the sake of an historically incorrect log cabin ‘look’.”
Historic Hamilton, Incorporated is a nonprofit who organized the restoration of the historic log cabin, which began last fall by the Franklin-based firm Architectural Restoration. The $80,000 project is funded by Metroparks of Butler County, the Hamilton Community Foundation, and Historic Hamilton, Inc.
Calls made to Architectural Restoration for comment were not returned by press time.
An explanation about the methods used for the project will be part of the city’s next council meeting at 6 p.m. May 13 in the Council Chambers, 345 High St. Council meetings are open to the public.
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