Madison slave cabin re-opens

On Sunday, Nov. 15, Chairman Eddie Dean of the Madison County Board of Supervisors cut the ribbon to mark the official opening of the newly restored slave quarters behind the Kemper Residence on North Main Street in downtown Madison. The restoration was a two-year effort undertaken by the Madison County Historical Society. Mr. Dean expressed his gratitude to the historical society for their efforts in preserving this important historical structure.

The opening ceremony followed the society’s quarterly membership meeting, at which local architectural historian Ann Miller presented a review with pictures of the entire restoration project.

Restoration of the Kemper outbuildings began in 1999 with a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This grant allowed us to have architectural evaluation and restoration estimates for the law office and the slave quarters. At that time, the law office was being used as a county office and was in fairly good shape, although modified in its interior structure. The slave quarters was used for storage and was in bad shape, with extensive termite damage to its logs.

A fund-raising campaign was begun and money was raised from local contributions and from a grant. The amount was insufficient to handle the difficult problems of the slave quarters and therefore was used to restore the law office. That restoration was completed in 2003, and that small building, office to Gov. James Kemper and Judge McMullan, is now part of the tours of the Kemper Residence.

In 2005 interior bracing was placed in the slave quarters because of its fragile condition. Fund raising for its restoration was initiated in 2007 with the Kemper Gala, a dinner on the lawn. Following this the Historical Society appealed to the local community for support and applied to private foundations for grants. In late 2008 a grant was received from the Richard and Caroline Gwathmey Memorial Trust. This, along with the funds raised locally, was just sufficient to restore the slave quarters, except for its chimney which had been removed several decades ago.

Joe Wayner, restoration contractor from Orange and the advisor on the law office restoration, agreed to help us again by overseeing this project. He recommended Craig Jacobs, proprietor of Salvagewrights Ltd., as the person most knowledgeable about log structures. Mr. Jacobs agreed to undertake the work. Ann Miller, well-known architectural historian, and again a veteran of the law office restoration, agreed to advise us on this project as well.

Due to the advanced state of damage to the logs, the restoration would require dismantling and replacement of deteriorated logs with sound ones, while retaining all usable original parts.  Because the Kemper property is under easement to the Department of Historic Resources application was made to them for permission to proceed with this restoration. DHR gave its permission and this past summer the restoration work began.

Mr. Jacobs with his team of Stephen Nash and Paul Crocker systematically began the dismantling. All parts were labeled with metal tags and photographed. Siding, doors and windows were removed.

The roof, whose basic structure was sound, was lifted by forklift and placed in the parking lot of the Health Department. The logs were then removed along with the intact floor boards, revealing that there had never been an adequate foundation to the building and that at some point it had been jacked up and the lower two courses of logs replaced.

Next Carole Nash, archaeologist with James Madison University, came with a team of archaeological volunteers, and sifted the top layers of soil in the cabin site. Shards, pieces of metal and some early buttons were found. Dr.Nash is evaluating these at JMU and will have them on display eventually in an exhibit at the slave quarters.

When the archaeologists were finished, Brent Ryder and his cousin, Charles Ryder, built a sound foundation, using period bricks from the property and lime mortar. The soil removed for the foundation was sifted by another archaeologist, Ray Ezell, who discovered, along with some shards and metal pieces, an early clay marble.

Logs from a Madison County cabin of about the same age as the slave quarters and scheduled for demolition were used by Mr. Jacobs in reconstruction. Once the logs were assembled and secure on the new foundation the roof was lifted back into place and the original windows, doors, siding, floorboards and moldings were replaced, supplemented, where necessary, with period material. Volunteers from the historical society, under the guidance of Craig Jacobs and Stephen Nash, did the caulking. The tin roof, which was in bad shape, was replaced with a more appropriate roof of cedar shakes. The soil under the cabin and the first two courses of logs were treated with a termite preventative.

With this phase of the restoration now complete the building will be included in the tours of the property and will house exhibits of its method of construction and of the artifacts found in and under it.

The historical society will now attempt to raise funds, an estimated $6,900, for reconstruction of the chimney. Fortunately there is an excellent photograph of the chimney. Nineteenth century bricks will be used for it.

Contributions toward its reconstruction, which are tax-deductible, can be mailed to the Madison County Historical Society, P.O. Box 467, Madison, VA 22727, and will be greatly appreciated.

People and organizations without whose help this restoration could not have been done include:

• Dr. Maury Hanson of the historical society, who led the effort to raise funds, obtain approval of the Department of Historical Resources, and engage the services of Joe Wayner as general contractor.

• Joe Wayner, who provided advice on proper restoration throughout the project and arranged for donation of shakes, soil and termite treatment.
Ann Miller, who inspected the work throughout, evaluating the structure as it was at the onset of this project, distinguishing recent additions from original structure, and advising on proper period replacements.

• Craig Jacobs, who located a cabin of similar age and structure to provide those logs needed as replacements and who was able, with his excellent knowledge of log cabin structure, to recreate the slave quarters, repairing and reassembling the original material where possible and supplying appropriate replacements where required.

• Stephen Nash and Paul Crocker who, with great skill and efficiency and with Craig’s guidance and help, dismantled the original structure, prepared the replacement logs, and accomplished the restoration.

• Brent Ryder and his cousin, Charles Ryder, who built a fine foundation from period brick available on the property.

• Dr. Carole Nash and her team of archaeological volunteers who worked for several days sifting the soil beneath the cabin floor and preserving significant artifacts.

• Dr. Ray Ezell who provided archaeological sifting of the soil removed in preparing the foundation.

• Andy Hutchison who supplied the sod laid around the foundation.

• The historical society volunteers who, under Craig and Stephen’s guidance applied the caulking between the logs.

• Heidi Sage of the Madison Garden Club, who helped transplant and care for the roses planted in front of the building.

• The A Plus Miranda Construction Company of Spotsylvania, which lent its forklift.

• The Intrastate Pest Control Company Inc., that donated the labor to apply the termite treatment.

(Bill Scholten is president of the Madison County Historical Society. Contact him via e-mail at .)