A Big Fat Slob: Pssst, Buddy, I Can Get You a 235 Year Old Log Cabin – Free?


Wednesday, August 02, 2006


I’m departing a bit from the norm here. After politics, my second love is history. My children have fond memories of rolling their eyes and impatiently waiting as Dad explored nooks and crannies, or just soaked in the human history behind whatever historical site or building we happened upon, intentionally or not, in our travels. They still gleefully recall the eight hour self-guided tour of the Gettysburg fields. Although the tape said it was a two-hour tour, Dad found the information wanting and repeatedly stopped the tape and ushered the family and the dog out of the station wagon and onto the fields for extended lectures about the goings on that spot so many generations ago. Sigh, dem were the days. Funny that neither of them became history majors, huh?

Anyway, today’s Penn Hills Progress reports on the availability of a 1770’s log cabin — free to anyone capable of removing it from the owner’s property. I desperately hope that one of the two or three people who stumble accidentally on this blog might know someone, who knows someone in a local historical society or such, who might want to take advantage of this rare opportunity. Isn’t there a town out there with an empty town square which can be turned into a tourist destination for very little expense? Why, I bet there are even government or private grants available to assist.

It seems the cabin is in bad shape but restorable. There are relatively few historical buildings from the Revolutionary-War era. For a long time after the Revolution, there was very little interest in preserving historical sites — the mindset being a separation from England and the past. It really wasn’t until after the Civil War that Americans as a whole began to think about preservation of such sites.

So here’s your chance to save a piece of that history.

1 comment:


I hope someone saves it.