Cypress Log Cabin
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Both the Cypress Log Cabin and the Cypress Guest house are historic buildings in the
Century of Progress Architectural District The Century of Progress Architectural District is a historic district in Beverly Shores, Indiana. The district is on Lake Shore Drive within the Indiana Dunes National Park. The district comprises five buildings, all from the Homes of Tomorro ...
in
Beverly Shores, Indiana Beverly Shores is a town in Pine Township, Porter County, Indiana, Pine Township, Porter County, Indiana, Porter County, Indiana, United States, about east of downtown Chicago. The population was 613 at the 2010 census. History Beverly Shores beg ...
. The houses were sponsored by Southern Cypress Manufacturer's Association, Jacksonville, Florida. The Cypress Cabin was purchased by the Zimmernam Estate represented by Zimmerman, Saxe and MacBride,
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
architects. It was planned to move the house to
St. Joseph, Michigan St. Joseph, colloquially known as St. Joe, is a city and the county seat of Berrien County, Michigan. It was incorporated as a village in 1834 and as a city in 1891. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,365. It lies on the shore o ...
, where it was to be a summer home near the Bolton exhibit building of the 1893
Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
. The move included the Cabin, Guest House and other landscape elements. That move never happened and Robert Bartlett trucked the Cabin and Guest House to Beverly Shores.Daily News, November 3, 1934Collins, Judith E; et al.; Cypress Log Cabin, Guest House, Beverly Shores-Century of Progress Architectural District; Historic American Buildings Survey, National Park Service, Washington, DC; HABS IN-241-A, HABS IND 64-BEVSH, 2A; 1994 Bartlett owned the property until 1942, when sold it to Ida J. Osterburg. The house changed owners several times, until it was purchased by the
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
in October 1970, becoming part of
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Indiana Dunes National Park is a United States national park located in northwestern Indiana managed by the National Park Service. It was authorized by Congress in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and was redesignated as the nation ...
. The Cypress Log Cabin was built for the 1933–34 exhibition house to demonstrate the many uses of cypress. The house was built using traditional materials rather than the experimental materials used elsewhere in the exhibition.Collins, Judith E; et al.; Cypress Log Cabin, Beverly Shores-Century of Progress Architectural District; Historic American Buildings Survey, National Park Service, Washington, DC; HABS IN-241-A, HABS IND 64-BEVSH, 2A; 1994 During both seasons of the fair, Mr. and Mrs. B.R. Ellis from the Southern Cypress Association lived in the
ell An ell (from Proto-Germanic *''alinō'', cognate with Latin ''ulna'') is a northwestern European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit (the combined length of the forearm and extended hand). The word literally means "arm", and ...
of the house.


Century of Progress

The Guest House was added to the Home and Industrial Arts Group for the 1934 exposition year. It was used as a display building showing historic uses of cypress, such as a 150-year-old
Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, an ...
Indian canoe, 200-year-old Spanish prison stock and a 120-year-old French water main from
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
. The Guest House was one of several changes in the Home and Industrial Arts Group landscape for the 1934 season.


Move to Indiana

In the winter and spring of 1934, sixteen buildings barged and trucked to Robert Bartlett's subdivision at
Beverly Shores, Indiana Beverly Shores is a town in Pine Township, Porter County, Indiana, Pine Township, Porter County, Indiana, Porter County, Indiana, United States, about east of downtown Chicago. The population was 613 at the 2010 census. History Beverly Shores beg ...
. In an attempt to capitalize on the fairs success, Bartlett reestablished a small exhibition of model houses along Lake Front Drive in Beverly Shores. Depression-era America had responded the Chicago Century of Progress exhibition and Bartlett hoped to transfer that positive interest to his development. The Cypress Log Cabin was moved to Lake Front Drive in Beverly Shores along with four other houses from the Home and Industrial Arts Group. The exhibition site had been landscaped by the James W. Owen Nurseries. Robert Bartlett planned "to reconstruct and landscape them for sale exactly as they were on the Fair grounds." Bartlett neither replicated the fair landscape nor did adapted individual themes for each house. The by grouping the house along Lake Front Drive, Bartlett managed to recreate a sense of an "exhibition group". Three of the exhibition homes were lined up on the south side of Lake Front atop a dune. A retaining wall was created to run the length of Lake Front from the
Armco-Ferro House The Armco-Ferro House, in the Century of Progress Architectural District in Beverly Shores, Indiana, was originally constructed for the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. "The ... Exposition opened in May of 1933 directed by the them ...
, past the House of Tomorrow to the Cypress Log Cabin. A flight of twenty-seven stairs in front of each house leads to the yard in front of each house with a walkway connecting all three.


Log Cabin

The house is an intentionally rustic mountain cabin set in a picturesque, asymmetrical landscape. In contrast to many of the model houses that featured modern building materials, the Cypress House was intended to exhibit the diverse possibilities for building with a traditional material. The house was meant to be a display space rather than a model home arranged to look as if someone lived there. Ironically, the Cypress House was the only building in the Home and Industrial Arts group that actually served as a home; the ell was occupied for both seasons by the house's sponsor and his wife. The Cypress House had a complex landscape scheme formed from an assemblage of fences, arbors, bridges and decorated cypress knees used to create a mountain lodge atmosphere. For the 1933 season of the fair, the only major outbuilding was a greenhouse built by Lord & Burnham. For the 1934 season, the Southern Cypress Association applied for additional land in the former Dahlia Garden to construct a second greenhouse by Lord & Burnham's main competitor, the American Moninger Company. This request was denied and the most of the Dahlia Garden land was given to the Kohler company. The Lord & Burnham greenhouse was removed for the 1934 season and a new building was built that extended slightly into the Dahlia Garden. This may have been the Guest House, then functioning as a cypress workshop.


Guest House

An outbuilding of the Cypress Log Cabin, the Guest House was originally a part of the Home and Industrial Arts Group at the 1933–34 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition. The structure was moved to Beverly Shores, Indiana by Robert Bartlett, a real-estate developer who purchased the houses after the close of the fair


Exterior

Characterized as a rustic style mountain lodge, the house is on concrete footings. The walls are made of pecky cypress log siding. The building is of frame construction with log and ship-lap siding. Porches were added when the buildings were moved to Beverly Shores.


Interior

The house is a long narrow, single room width rectangle. The living spaces are arranged in a symmetrical pattern around of a central living space. Entering the central living space from the north, the kitchen is to the right or east with a bedroom beyond it. To the left or west are two bedrooms and a bathroom. At the far west end of the structure is a utility room accessible only from the outside


Restoration efforts

Restoration efforts on the Cyprus Log Cabin were started in 1997. The home is now fully restored and occupied by long-term renters who obtained a 30-year lease from the park service in exchange for restoration and maintenance of the home.


Bibliography

*"A Century of Progress Paradox: Whose meat and whose Poison?", Architectural Forum 61; November 1934; pgs 374–379. *Boyce, Robert; Keck & Kock; New York; Princeton Architectural Press, Inc.; 1993 *Cahan, Cathy and Richard; "The Lost City of the Depression." Chicago History, Winter 1976–77; pg 233-242 *"Catalogue of A Century of Progress Exposition." Introduction p 1–5; Special Collections, Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago; Chicago *"Cypress Cabin at World's Fair Sold for Home." Chicago Daily News; November 3, 1934 *Horrigan, Brian; "The Home of Tomorrow, 1927-1946"' Imaging Tomorrow, ed. Corn, Joseph J.; pg 137-163' Cambridge, MA; MIT Press; 1986 *Lohy, Lenox R.; Fair Management: the Story of A Century of Progress Exposition; Chicago; Cuneo Press, Inc., 1952 *Pecky Cypress: Its Nature and Uses."; Jacksonville, FL: Miller Press, 1933. Chicago Century of Press Exposition; Special Collection, Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago. *Raley, Doroty, Ed.; A Century of Progress: Homes and Furnishings; Chicago; M.A. Ring Company, 1`934


References

{{National Register of Historic Places Log cabins in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Porter County, Indiana Houses completed in 1933 Houses in Porter County, Indiana Indiana Dunes National Park Century of Progress World's fair architecture in the United States Historic district contributing properties in Indiana Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Indiana Log buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Indiana