LOG ARCHITECTURE
The first homes built by new settlers were made from logs, because wood was plentiful, and most settlers came from a tradition of wooden structures. A one-room cabin could be built with a few simple tools and would typically take several men a few days to a week to build. The homes built upon arrival were often temporary structures until a family became established and could build a bigger home. Many of the homes, tiny by today's standards, would have been considered a decent size even for a large family. Living in close quarters was simply an accepted practice, very different from our modern emphasis on privacy.
Using large axes, several men would cut down tall trees and split them into planks using a mallet and a tool called a froe. This method for producing hand-split boards is called riving. The same method would be used to make wooden shingles, or shakes.
The ends of the logs were notched so they would fit together without the use of nails, which were rare and expensive before mass production.
The openings between the logs were filled with stones or small pieces of wood called chinking, then the whole was daubed over with mud and clay. A chimney would be built at one end of the house.
The one room log cabin is only one of four basic house types in traditional Kentucky architecture. Other common types of floorplans are the dogtrot, saddlebag, and double pen. A dogtrot refers to a traditional floor plan with two rooms and a breezeway in the middle all covered by one roof.
Lesson plans dealing with log architecture:
Lesson 4-letter from Daphne Tiller to her mother (1794) Lesson 5-description of a log cabin Lesson 9-recollection of frontier school
Illustrations from Sloane, Eric. 1973. A Museum of Early American Tools. New York: Ballantine Books. and Clark, Kenneth and Ira Kohn. 1976. Kentucky's Age of Wood. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. Used by permission.
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