By Shelly Gattlieb
They’re not always easy to identify from the outside, but scattered throughout Carmel are several log cabins built long before the city’s suburban neighborhoods came to be.
Historian Katherine Dill provided an overview of the city’s remaining log cabins – and some of those most recently demolished – during a Feb. 26 presentation at the Carmel Clay Public Library.
Dill used an interactive map available on the Carmel Clay Historical Society’s website to show the location of 13 log cabins and the history of each one. The map also includes interior and exterior photos of many of the cabins to showcase their design and how many of them were expanded over the years.
Dill has partnered with CCHS for approximately 15 years, but her appreciation for history began as a child. She said she enjoyed “playing with the papers” at her grandmother’s home as she reviewed old land deeds and property documents. Now, she encourages others to look for history all around them.
“There’s so much history in Carmel, and a lot of it is history that you don’t see, but it’s there,” Dill said. “If you know what to look for – like the white chimney or the special siding – then you can see the history that is there, and it can tell you about where we came from and what brought this together as a community. I think that’s what is so fascinating is that it just tells a story. To keep those historic structures around keeps the history and keeps the story alive.”
View the interactive log cabin map at carmelclayhistory.org/interactive-presentations.
