The Austintown Community Council worked with members of the community to raise funds for the restoration of the cabin. With the approval of township officials, the group developed an innovative fundraiser which involved standing at the busiest intersection in Austintown and collecting money from drivers in cars stopped at the red light. This, coupled with pennies collected from school children; donations from school PTAs, civic organization, and various church groups; bake sales, book sales, and a flea market yielded $50,000 with which to restore the cabin. While some volunteers were fundraising, other volunteers, under the guidance of an architect knowledgeable in historical preservation, were removing the cabin's roof and replacing it with a wood shake roof, removing interior walls, replacing windows with panes of glass from a 100-year-old school house, and adding a furnace and new plumbing. They sealed the logs with preservatives, and they replaced the chinking with a cement mixture to simulate the original the clay, straw, mud and rock chinking. They restored the fireplace using century-old brick and an old barn beam for the mantel. As a result of their efforts, the Austin Log Cabin was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975. A $2,500 grant from the Ohio American Revolution Bicentennial Commission allowed the dedication of the Austin Log Cabin on July 4, 1976, as Austintown's Bicentennial Project. The Austintown Historical Society was formed on July 21, 1976, for the purpose of maintaining the Austin Log Cabin. It became a 501(c)(3) in 1976 and was incorporated in 1979.