There has been a lot of work done on the Palmer Park Log Cabin. So much in fact that the People for Palmer Park want to invite people to a special grand opening concert celebration this Saturday. Usually the cabin is only open during Log Cabin day, however this year it will be open both Saturday and Sunday.
If you have been around Detroit for any amount of time you probably know about the log cabin in the middle of Palmer Park. It was the former summer home for Senator Thomas Palmer and his wife Lizzie.
The cabin was built in 1885 and was designed by George D. Mason and Zachariah Rice. Mason also did The Ransom Gillis House and The Masonic Temple.
While it looked like a log cabin from the outside, it had all of the modern conveniences of its time. The first floor had a parlor, dining room, a kitchen, and an indoor bathroom. The bedrooms were on the second floor.
The cabin also has two large fireplaces. The cabin also had all of those great décor accents that you find in homes of that era, like the carved staircase and decorative door hinges.
The Palmers gave the City of Detroit 140 acres of land and the cabin in 1893. The cabin became a museum until the 1970s. After the museum closed the cabin was boarded up and left to decay. For years raccoons took up a residence inside the cabin.
For the past few years the People for Palmer Park have been working with the City of Detroit to try and get the cabin stabilized and renovated.
The City of Detroit has worked on the cabin extensively in 2016. The cabin has had the cedar shingle roof replaced, the foundation repaired, replaced the porch canopy, fixed the back wall and added a new rear entrance. The city also removed all of the remaining animal feces from the walls and ceiling.
For their part the People for Palmer Park raised money during the “Light Up The Cabin” campaign to get the 32 stained glass windows restored.
The organization brought in Andrea Sevonty of Sevonty Restoration to restore the stained glass windows. Sevonty did a complete restore on each of the windows. There were seven windows missing so she had to build the window with new stained glass that matches the original windows.
“Up until this week the windows have always been covered with plywood. We now have a new security storm system that will allow light to come in. Our whole campaign for the window restoration was called ‘light up the cabin’. It was entirely based on fundraising,” said Sevonty. “We’re eternally thankful to anyone who donated any amount of money because it made this thing possible. Part of that was the security system to replace the boards to let light into the cabin. This might be the first time in 40 years that this has happened.”
The new windows bring in a ton of light into the cabin, and the installation should be finished in time for this weekend.
The “Concert in the Cabin” is a fundraiser for the People for Palmer Park. The money raised will go toward the work that still needs to be done inside the cabin, like permanent lighting, the kitchen, and chimneys.
The concert will feature musicians A. Spencer Barefield, Shahida Nurullah, and Ibrahim Jones.
Concert goers will enjoy refreshments during the reception as well as a tour of the cabin.
There are two times for the concert 4 p.m.-6 p.m. and 7 p.m.-9 p.m.
Tickets for the concert are $50 per person or $60 for VIP tickets.