A two-story log cabin housing the kitchen and workhouse exhibit at the Chief Vann House in Spring Place, Georgia, is undergoing a complete exterior restoration. Department of Natural Resources officials say that while the cabin will be closed for a couple of months, the rest of the site will remain open to visitors.
The restoration work includes new cedar-shake roofing shingles, window sills, faux chinking and log beams to replace rotten ones, according to Vann House interpretive ranger Irina Garner.
Garner said the restorative work is organized by the state and funded in part by a donation from Friends of the Vann House, an auxiliary of the Whitfield-Murray Historic Society.
The cabin east of Chatsworth, Georgia, was originally part of an office as well as a staff residence until 2002, when the Robert E. Chambers Museum opened to house the site’s gallery theater and offices, Garner said Wednesday.
“Then the two-story cabin in question got turned into an exhibit about African-American enslavement in the early 19th century,” Garner said.