Historic Harmony cabin awarded grant, seeking slate
HARMONY — Historic Harmony received a $7,500 Preserving America Grant this month for the installation of a new slate roof on the Ziegler Log Haus in the borough.
The grant was awarded by Americana Corner, a Georgia-based foundation dedicated to American history from 1607 to 1876, according to Rodney Gasch, president of Historic Harmony.
“Each year they give out several $100,000 to preservation projects, and this fit in that, but that $7,500 will not even cover half of the cost of the roof,” Gasch said. “So we hope we can either get people to donate old antique slate that’s in good condition — and that might get us through another 100 years — otherwise, if we do the wooden shakes, that’s probably 50 years.”
The cabin’s roof, reconstructed from wooden shakes 50 years ago, has begun to decline from its ongoing battle with the elements.
“You can see it’s warped and twisted and, you know, no longer looks neat,“ Gasch said. ”When it starts deteriorating like that, it’s just a matter of time that it’s going to leak.“
Historic Harmony vice president Gwen Lutz said the organization is seeking donations of slate to replace the wooden roof and prolong the life of the structure.
“There’s a lot of people who are changing over from slate to other materials, and if the slates are taken off of the roof carefully, they can be reused,” Lutz said. “So, you know, if somebody has changed over a roof, and they’ve got a stack of slate sitting there, that’s the kind of people that we’re looking for.”
The grant will help cover approximately 40% of the project’s estimated $20,000 cost, according to Gasch, with half of the cost being the materials.
“$20,000 would be to hire a professional and buy the slate,” he said, “so if we can get someone who would donate the slate, that would make a big difference.”
“If we can get the shingles donated, the grant would probably cover at least the bulk of it,” Lutz agreed.
In the meantime, Gasch said the organization has submitted other grant applications that they “hope to hear about soon.”
“It needs to be done by fall, so we want to get this taken off,” Gasch said. “The grant needs to be done this year, and, of course, the construction season kind of ends October, November.”
The cabin was constructed by the Harmonists in 1819, according to Gasch, but it originally was located four miles away in Middle Lancaster.
“It was moved here and reconstructed as a display,” Gasch said. “So we want to both save the structure and utilize it to tell the story of the early pioneers.”
The Ziegler cabin is one of three historic log cabins owned by the Harmony Museum, including the Weaver’s Cabin and the Visitor Information Cabin.
While the Weaver’s Cabin, operated by the Weavers of Harmony, focuses on the history of textiles for the Harmonists, Gasch said, the Visitor Information Cabin reconstructs their working life.
The Ziegler cabin, then, is a reconstruction of Harmonists’ domestic life, he said.
“We have it outfitted as how an early settler would have lived,” Gasch said. “We have period pieces on display — a lot of the domestic arts.”
The cabin includes a potbelly stove made in the borough, a cherry-rope bed, a spinning wheel, a yarn-winder, a dry sink, and an antique table that converts into a bench.
“This is how early settlers — or, I like to say early European settlers, because there were people settled here for thousands of years before that — but our early European settlers would have lived,” Gasch said.
The cabin was moved to Harmony in 1973 by Historic Harmony — then called the Harmonist Historic and Memorial Association — rather than have it be torn down.
The organization disassembled it, numbered the logs and transported it to Main Street, according to Gasch. In the effort though, the once two-story structure was reconstructed as a one-story display.
“This is one of the older parts of the museum, and we really want to make sure that we preserve this,” Lutz said. “We’ve been watching that roof for a couple of years, and it’s getting to the extreme.”
Want to learn more?
For more information, to receive a tour of the Ziegler cabin or to donate to the project, visit harmonymuseum.org or call 724-452-7341.
