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DAR gives facelift to Robe-Ann cabin
With the national Daughters of the American Revolution focusing on service in the month of October, the Wasburn Chapter DAR recently completed work on two historic structures near the entrance of Robe-Ann Park.
The DAR cabin received a new coat of paint and major structural work on the north side porch, while the nearby smokehouse had a rotten floor beam removed and two benches installed in place of the old porch floor.
Don’t misunderstand the use of the word “paint,” as the historic log cabin — actually composed from parts of three Putnam County cabins — still sports the hues of its natural timbers rather than yellow or purple or some other unsavory color of paint.
Instead, the wood surfaces of the cabin received what might more accurately described as stain to maintain and enhance their natural color and grain.
So on a pleasant fall day last week — before the unseasonable rains set in — a crew of seven spent the day with brushes, buckets and ladders, hitting each surface of the cabin.
This was, however, the sequel to some structural work a few days earlier, which involved the removal of flooring and beams from the north side porch. The work began with members noticing the westernmost post was not square.
“We were mainly worried about the west post that was not plumb,” Washburn Chapter Regent Diana Brumfield said. “However, when I asked for our building inspector to consult with me, he was also worried about the fact that the porch roof was resting on a ledger board on the cabin with only about five nails. There had been a porch roof blow off just down the street from high winds.”
Thus began a more involved project, though it did not involve resetting the porch roof on the main timber, which would have been cost prohibitive. Instead, additional lag screws were installed to better secure the ledger board, with additional posts also installed.
“We added two more posts but will probably come back and replace the two older ones as they have major damage to them,” Brumfield said. “The old roof was metal and probably lighter than the shake shingle roof, so I wanted two more posts to spread the weight.”
The only surfaces not sealed were on the porch, as the flooring was bleached and needed to dry, and the new posts need to weather.
That same day, work was also performed on the smokehouse just north of the cabin. The floor and beam were removed and instead of replacing them, some of the wide planking was used to install two facing benches under the structure’s small porch.
With the high prices of timber currently, Brumfield also made sure to thank Rod McCammack, who donated all the planking for the project.
The work was done in conjunction with the National DAR Day of Service, which is set each Oct. 11 but has been extended throughout the month of October.
“Since this needed to be done anyway, we decided to make this our service project,” Brumfield said. “I think everybody was like, we can’t do that. And I said, yeah we can.”
A big portion of the Robe-Ann cabin came from an old two-story cabin near Belle Union, the DAR learned earlier this year from Jordan Vaughn, whose family once owned the old structure before it was donated to the Washburn Chapter.
The work was completed with portions of cabins from Roachdale and the now-vanished town of Westland in Warren Township, with work completed on the “new” structure in 1938.
