An American Icon: In cabins, we hold a treasury of intangibles
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Excerpted from "The Cabin: Inspiration for the Classic American Getaway," by Dave Mulfinger and Susan E. Davis (The Taunton Press, $34.95).
Cabins are reservoirs of the intangible. As different from a suburban ranch home as from a palace, a cabin is purposely a place that doesn't hold much in the tangible sense, yet holds a treasury of life's most meaningful mementos. Like a living scrapbook, cabins evoke feelings and events that no photograph could capture. A gold mine of memories is at the heart of every cabin.
What's most important? A rustic cabin represents life without pretension. A transformed cabin reminds us of the basic ecologic principle of treading gently on the earth. The traditional cabin connects us to our timeless cultural roots. And the modern cabin allows us to invent new forms through which we can expand and extend the definition of what makes a cabin.
Almost every state has famous log cabins. Some have been reconstructed, like those at Valley Forge, Pa., that sheltered Gen. George Washington's army during the bitter winter of 1777. Others are individual landmarks, like the Pepin, Wis., childhood home of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of "The Little House" books.
The cabins included in this book show how people all across the continent are building, reclaiming or buying cabins with all this in mind. Though each cabin is unique, together they reveal a compelling similarity. They show that simple can mean rich, compact can mean convenient, and informal can mean engaging.
Ties to the Land
Architect Geoffrey Prentiss's ties to San Juan Island date back to the 1860s, when his great-grandfather homesteaded several hundred acres on the largest of the 176 San Juan Islands that form the border between Canada and Washington State. By 1984 all that remained of the family land was a 2 1/2-acre plot of waterfront property. Because Prentiss and his two brothers, who live in Texas and Rhode Island, wanted to maintain a connection to the area, they purchased the land and built a cabin on it so the three families could share vacations.
Do-It-Yourself From a Kit
Seattle residents Peg Snyder and Michael Mortenson knew they wanted a cabin near a farm, with a view of both water and mountains. After looking for property throughout the summer of 1990, they finally snapped up a plot of land on Whidbey Island that met all their criteria on the 10-acre Col. Crockett Farm, which dates to the 1860s. While camping on the land, they researched the possibilities of what Michael, who had some remodeling experience, could build himself. In 1995, a kit for a 24-foot-by-32-foot barn-shaped structure made by Shelter-Kit in Tilton, N.H., was unloaded off a flatbed truck. Michael and two friends constructed the cabin shell over a three-week vacation. It took him several more years to finish the interior.
Paradise on a Budget
Jim Hattori and Lisa Peters, a young Seattle professional couple passionate about cross-country skiing and mountain biking, found the perfect place to practice their sports in northern Washington's Methow Valley. They asked Seattle architect Thomas Lawrence to build them a modest cabin that would give them easy access to the land and great views of the surrounding valley. Thomas opted for restraint, siting the cabin to frame the best views and catch the prevailing breezes. Then he chose an elongated plan with a conventional gabled roof to give the building some presence within its landscape on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains.
The Better To See the Water
As it got harder and harder for William and Wilder Witt to find suitable campsites for themselves and their growing children, William, an architect, thought it was time to build the family a cabin. After scouring the area within a two-hour radius of their Seattle home, the couple found a modest site on a secluded lagoon in the Ebys Landing National Historic District of Whidbey Island. It had the advantage of waterfront property without the waterfront price. The family also liked that the island gets a quarter of the rainfall of Seattle, so they could enjoy the outdoors more often than they could in the city.
Dale Mulfinger is a principal of SALA Architects, Inc., of Minneapolis and an adjunct professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Minnesota. Susan E. Davis has written and edited books about architecture for more than 25 years. She is the New York editor of HOW magazine, where she writes about graphic design.