The Joaquin Miller Cabin is an historic structure situated in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

Rock Creek Park Rock Creek Park is a large urban park that bisects the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. The park was created by an Act of Congress in 1890 and today is administered by the National Park Service. In addition to the park proper, the Rock Cr ...

. Built by the American poet, essayist and fabulist

Joaquin Miller Cincinnatus Heine Miller (; September 8, 1837 – February 17, 1913), better known by his pen name Joaquin Miller (), was an American poet, author, and frontiersman. He is nicknamed the "Poet of the Sierras" after the Sierra Nevada, about which h ...

, it represents the only known example of late 19th century Rustic-style

log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a less finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first generation home building by settlers. Eur ...

in Washington, D.C.http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/rocr1/hrs.pdf Rock Creek Park: Historic Resource Study, By William Bushong (1990), United States Department of the Interior/National Park Service, page 170–171. It is a Classified Structure within

History

Joaquin Miller

In 1883,

(1837–1913) moved to Washington, DC to get involved in politics, which proved unsuccessful.Marx, Edward. ''Yone Noguchi: The Stream of Fate. Volume I: The Western Sea''. Botchan Books, 2019: 106. He built the cabin near the intersection of 16th and Belmont Streets, NW across from present day

Meridian Hill Park Meridian Hill Park, also known as Malcolm X Park, is a structured urban park located in the Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Columbia Heights, Washington, D.C., Columbia Heights; it also abuts the nearby neighborhood of Adams Morgan. The park wa ...

to find rustic peace and "find his muse". Miller lived here from 1883 to late 1885 when he left for California. He sold the cabin for $5,100 in 1887.

Preservation

In 1911, the area near Meridian Hill Park was being developed and Henry White, the former ambassador to France, was building an estate on land that included the cabin. The state of California and the

Columbia Historical Society The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., also called the DC History Center, is an educational foundation dedicated to preserving and displaying the history of Washington, D.C. The society provides lectures, exhibits, classes, and community e ...

sought to save the structure from demolition and have it moved to

. The board of the National Park Service refused the request but Senator

John D. Works John Downey Works (March 29, 1847June 6, 1928) was an American politician and lawyer. He was a U.S. Senator representing California from 1911 to 1917, and an associate justice of the California Supreme Court from October 2, 1888, to January 5, 1 ...

, and Joseph R. Knowland of California successfully intervened to force the Park Service to move the cabin to its present location near the east bank of Rock Creek one half mile north of Military Road. In acquiescing to the public campaign to save the cabin the Board of Control for the Park insisted that they be allowed to use the cabin as a shelter and reserved the right to remove the cabin at any time. The cabin was initially used as a shelter and dedicated on June 2, 1912, with ceremonies featuring members of California's congressional delegation and Senator

Weldon B. Heyburn Weldon Brinton Heyburn (May 23, 1852October 17, 1912) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States Senator from Idaho from 1903 to 1912. Early life Born in southeastern Pennsylvania near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, H ...

of Idaho. In 1931, the cabin was leased to the poet's niece, Pherne Miller, who sold beverages and food and conducted art classes in the cabin until the mid-1950s.

Architecture

Miller built the cabin as a replication of his early home in

Shasta County, California Shasta County (), officially the County of Shasta, is a County (United States), county in the Northern California, northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population is 182,155 as of the 2020 census, up from 177,223 from the 2010 c ...

, and as he later wrote, "to teach that a log cabin can be made very comfortable, with content at hand". The structure is one and a half stories and constructed of saddle-notched logs and a steeply pitched cross-gabled roof covered by shingles. It is an example of

vernacular architecture Vernacular architecture is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. This category encompasses a wide range and variety of building types, with differing methods of construction, from around the world, bo ...

and a rare log cabin structure in the nation's capital. The exterior of the L-shaped cabin was constructed of split logs and chinking with a

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

fireplace at the center of the cabin. The cabin was painstakingly deconstructed and moved in 1911.

Joaquin Miller Poetry Series

From 1973 to 2011 the cabin hosted the oldest continuous reading series in Washington through the Miller Cabin Poetry Series run by nonprofit literary and educational organization

Word Works The Word Works is a literary organization based in Washington, DC. The press was founded in 1974 and has published works by Frannie Lindsay, Fred Marchant, Jay Rogoff, Grace Cavalieri, Donna Denizé, Christopher Bursk, and Enid Shomer and is a m ...

. In 1978 the series was held inside the cabin, until audiences outgrew the space. The readings were then held outdoors on the cabin grounds. In 2011 the reading series was relocated to the Rock Creek Nature Center and dropped the "cabin" from the series name, changing it to the Joaquin Miller Poetry Series. The series has been documented in two anthologies of the participating poets, ''Whose Woods These Are'' and ''Cabin Fever: Poets at Miller's Cabin''.http://www.wordworksbooks.org/about/history/reading-series/#millerHistory Word Works' Miller Poetry Series page Sample poems in the Joaquin Miller series includ
The Three Laughers of Tiger Ravine
by David Wolinsky. The final reading for the series was held on June 9, 2022, and included a tribute to Jacklyn Potter, who ran the series for 22 years.

References