The Navarre Cabin Restoration Project
The Navarre Cabin Restoration Project has been completed, announces the Northern Indiana Center for History, which owns the cabin. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the log structure was built c. 1820 by Pierre Navarre, the first European to settle in the area. It is located in Leeper Park.
A tremendous commitment of resources was dedicated to the project, which was a partnership effort of the Northern Indiana Center for History, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, and Historic Preservation Commission of South Bend and St. Joseph County. The total cost for the project was over $155,000.
Restoration of the Navarre Cabin included repair and replication of logs and structural elements, provision of a new foundation, installation of a new cedar shake roof, and reconstruction of windows and the front door. The firm of Leatherwood, Inc., of Fairview, Tennessee, was retained to do the restoration work.
The project was funded in part by a matching grant in the amount of $44,100, which was awarded to the Historic Preservation Commission of South Bend and St. Joseph County and the Northern Indiana Center for History from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park
Service’s Historic Preservation Fund administered by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology.
Generous underwriting was provided by the Florence V. Carroll Charitable Trust, Stanley A. & Flora P. Clark Memorial Community Trust Foundation, Muessel-Ellison Memorial Trust Foundation, John, Anna and Martha Jane Fields Trust Foundation, and the John W. Anderson Foundation. Memorial Hospital of South Bend was also a contributor to the project.
The Navarre Cabin is used by the Center for History to help interpret pioneer settlement in the area. It is opened by the museum during an annual school program, “Cabin Days,” during which staff and volunteers dressed as pioneers demonstrate trades and recreation common in the 1830s. Now in its 26th year, Cabin Days has served over 75,000 area students.
