Work begins to restore Iowa City’s historic City Park cabins

IOWA CITY - Historic cabins in Iowa City will soon get a new chance at serving their very old purpose.

The two City Park demonstration cabins were built by the Old Settlers' Association of Johnson County in 1889 and 1913 to teach visitors about what life was like for settlers in Iowa before the 1880s. About 10 years ago, the cabins fell into disrepair and haven't been used for history programming since, said Juli Seydell Johnson, the city's parks and recreation director.

City officials have launched an effort to restore the cabins so they can once again be used to teach history to youth groups and those attending summer camps, for example, Seydell Johnson said. North Construction of Muscatine is the general contractor for the $256,900 project that began last week with subcontractor Heritage Woodworks, of Clemons, cataloging and documenting each piece of the structures before they are disassembled and taken to the company's warehouse so restoration can take place in a controlled environment.

The work includes but is not limited to wood shake shingle roof replacement; structural and concrete foundation stabilization; carpentry for wood floors, windows and doors; and log replacement and repair.

The project is supported, in part, by Resource Enhancement and Protection funds administered by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, a grant from the Community Foundation of Johnson County and private donations from Iowa City residents, according to a news release from the city.

'I think it's important that we preserve them and have that piece to show our residents and our visitors what our history has been here in Iowa City,” Seydell Johnson said. 'It'll be a showcase piece in Upper City Park and then have the practical use of day camps and youth groups being able to meet inside and actually see history alive in these cabins.”

Seydell Johnson said she hopes the restored cabins will offer more insight into the past - beyond what cabin living was like for settlers.

'I think we'll use it as kind of a launching point ... to teach not only the history of Iowa City but the history ... of the whole 1880s through 1900s,” Seydell Johnson said. 'We have a diverse population here now and we want to make sure that all groups are represented in that story or have an option to feel like this is part of their history, too.”

The smaller of the two cabins, built in 1889, was first constructed at the old Johnson County Fairgrounds before being moved to City Park. The larger cabin, built in 1913, has always been at City Park, Seydell Johnson said.

The process to save the historic cabins, which were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013, isn't like typical construction, said Tracy Grossmann, business manager for Heritage Woodworks.

Once each piece of the cabins is documented and the cabins are disassembled and moved indoors to dry out, Heritage employees will determine what wood is salvageable and find wood of a similar age to replace what is not.

'That's actually a time-consuming process, too, because you just can't go over to Lowe's and take the kind of logs that we're going to look for,” Grossmann said.

Eventually, the cabins will be reconstructed in the warehouse, deconstructed again for transport back to Iowa City and, finally, reconstructed in City Park.

Grossmann said the process is 'kind of like Lincoln Logs.”

The work is expected to be completed by Oct. 1, 2018, Grossmann said.

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