The Cave Spring Historical Society held an all day retreat at the Cave Spring United Methodist Church on August 10, 2015. The following people attended: Michael Burton, President, Pete Mathis, Vice President, Ann Montgomery, Secretary, Steve Craw, Cabin Committee Chair, Colt Chambers, Web Master, Lucy Hale, Education Committee Chair, Billy Wayne Abernathy, Park Buildings Chair, Jerry Maschinot, Site Development Committee Chair. We, regretfully, accepted the resignation of Chris Lemons from the Board and as treasurer. Linda Hall was not able to attend but she prepared a wonderful chicken salad for our lunch. Thanks Linda and to Colt who brought all the “fixings”.
There was a lengthy agenda involving financials, cabin projects, Art Festival, Park Buildings, Presbyterian Church and many others that I will discuss in subsequent blogs.
Jerry made a delightful presentation about the site plan for the cabin lot. This involved a number of ideas about privacy hedges, herbal gardens, designs for a 360 degree map for locating historical places in the vicinity and he had drawn numerous versions of a pavilion that could be used for a variety of community events. We applaud him for his extensive research and efforts into presenting a unified concept that will draw all of the separate entities into a visual and practical form. Stop by his studio and look at his large poster of the plan and give your input.
We applaud Colt on the beautiful Web site he has created and discussed what needed to be added as part of the public record and for our effort at being transparent. This included archiving the various reports from preservationist, archaeologist, historic architects etc. that interested parties could access through our site. We also asked that Pete and Billy Wayne provide electronic copies of their research materials about the cabin and the Cherokee and items such as the Richard Blount Diary (Georgia surveyor of the Georgia/ Alabama line in 1826) who documented many landmarks in present day Cave Spring.
Lucy volunteered to search out a volunteer preservationist/architect who might provide additional insight into our planning now that the cabin has been “exposed.” This needs to be timely since we created a tentative time line to continue work on the cabin and the “first addition.” As most of you know the cabin was added onto many times in the past 200 years. The log cabin was constructed circa 1810 and evidence indicates that within the next decade or two a “first addition “ was built immediately to the South of the log cabin to be used as a hotel. In contrast to the cabin it was built in the “post and beam” style that involved hand hewing large beams and connecting them with a system known as mortise and tendon with peg. Once this skeleton was constructed then planks would be used for floors, walls and ceilings. This required a sawmill. We do not know when the first sawmills were developed in this area but evidence indicates they were possibly in use in the 1820s. Pit sawed lumber was produced at the period of the cabin construction and would provide boards for windows, shutters and maybe flooring, but it was so labor intensive and tedious that it would have been prohibitive to use this method to create enough boards for the hotel. We anticipate adding detailed explanations regarding these construction techniques and maybe even videos. Education, as well as preservation, is one of the primary tenets of our bylaws.
These is the first of a number of blogs related to our retreat. Watch for the next installment soon.
CSHS Retreat:
ReplyDeleteThe Cave Spring Historical Society held an all day retreat at the Cave Spring United Methodist Church on August 10, 2015. The following people attended: Michael Burton, President, Pete Mathis, Vice President, Ann Montgomery, Secretary, Steve Craw, Cabin Committee Chair, Colt Chambers, Web Master, Lucy Hale, Education Committee Chair, Billy Wayne Abernathy, Park Buildings Chair, Jerry Maschinot, Site Development Committee Chair. We, regretfully, accepted the resignation of Chris Lemons from the Board and as treasurer. Linda Hall was not able to attend but she prepared a wonderful chicken salad for our lunch. Thanks Linda and to Colt who brought all the “fixings”.
There was a lengthy agenda involving financials, cabin projects, Art Festival, Park Buildings, Presbyterian Church and many others that I will discuss in subsequent blogs.
Jerry made a delightful presentation about the site plan for the cabin lot. This involved a number of ideas about privacy hedges, herbal gardens, designs for a 360 degree map for locating historical places in the vicinity and he had drawn numerous versions of a pavilion that could be used for a variety of community events. We applaud him for his extensive research and efforts into presenting a unified concept that will draw all of the separate entities into a visual and practical form. Stop by his studio and look at his large poster of the plan and give your input.
We applaud Colt on the beautiful Web site he has created and discussed what needed to be added as part of the public record and for our effort at being transparent. This included archiving the various reports from preservationist, archaeologist, historic architects etc. that interested parties could access through our site. We also asked that Pete and Billy Wayne provide electronic copies of their research materials about the cabin and the Cherokee and items such as the Richard Blount Diary (Georgia surveyor of the Georgia/ Alabama line in 1826) who documented many landmarks in present day Cave Spring.
Lucy volunteered to search out a volunteer preservationist/architect who might provide additional insight into our planning now that the cabin has been “exposed.” This needs to be timely since we created a tentative time line to continue work on the cabin and the “first addition.” As most of you know the cabin was added onto many times in the past 200 years. The log cabin was constructed circa 1810 and evidence indicates that within the next decade or two a “first addition “ was built immediately to the South of the log cabin to be used as a hotel. In contrast to the cabin it was built in the “post and beam” style that involved hand hewing large beams and connecting them with a system known as mortise and tendon with peg. Once this skeleton was constructed then planks would be used for floors, walls and ceilings. This required a sawmill. We do not know when the first sawmills were developed in this area but evidence indicates they were possibly in use in the 1820s. Pit sawed lumber was produced at the period of the cabin construction and would provide boards for windows, shutters and maybe flooring, but it was so labor intensive and tedious that it would have been prohibitive to use this method to create enough boards for the hotel. We anticipate adding detailed explanations regarding these construction techniques and maybe even videos. Education, as well as preservation, is one of the primary tenets of our bylaws.
These is the first of a number of blogs related to our retreat. Watch for the next installment soon.