Sunday, June 28th – 1pm to 5pm
“History comes alive on Log Cabin Day,” explains PFPP Events Chair Barbara Barefield. “We are thrilled to present an old-fashioned ice cream social with free Guernsey Dairy ice cream to the first 500, as well as history reenactments with the 102nd USCT Black Civil War History Group and the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War. Gifted artists will exhibit African American quilts, and demonstrate weaving, embroidery, basket-making, spinning, blacksmithing, historic carpentry, and much more. Log Cabin Day is always fun, very memorable, and enriching for all ages.”
Imagination abounds at Log Cabin Day. Children design wild and fabulous head attire for the Hat and Bonnet parade, contest and fashion show, where everyone wins prizes for their creativity. Lynnette Halalay will hold create magic with her enchanted spinning wheel, Gabriel Craig from the Smith Shop will heat up the fire as he demonstrates the art of black smiths, caricature artist Bob Andersen will be drawing up a storm, and artist Michael Daitch will be at his loom weaving and sewing with a hands-on make-and-take workshop for children.
The massive Dutch front door of Palmer Park’s log cabin will open wide to celebrate Log Cabin Day, a national holiday honored annually in Palmer Park. Senator Thomas Palmer and his wife Lizzie Merrill Palmer—portrayed by two members of People for Palmer Park (one is a descendent of the Palmer family)—will welcome guests into their dazzling home. Rustic on the exterior, the interior boasts 33 fully-restored, dazzling stained glass windows, an indoor commode, and other elements of a stately Victorian home of its 1885 era. New to the Cabin is authentic late 1800’s bedroom furniture, which can be viewed on the second floor.
The “Palmers” are especially excited to show off their newly restored kitchen and “modern” Detroit Jewel Stove, known in the late 1800s as the best stove in the world. A grant from the Michigan Architectural Foundation enabled People for Palmer (PFPP) to re-create an authentic historic kitchen using the fragmented pieces and precious original stove found in the deteriorating Log Cabin in 2011. Actress/historian Denise Ford, formerly from Greenfield Village, will be the queen of the kitchen in 1800s attire.
The Log Cabin has experienced many incarnations—a summer home for the Palmers in the late 1800s, a city-run museum of old-fashioned curiosities through much of the 20th century, and then an abandoned, boarded and neglected home infested with raccoons until about a decade ago when PFPP and the City of Detroit embarked on a mission to restore and rebuild this significant architectural treasure. Designed by renowned architects George D. Mason and Zachariah Rice for the Palmers, the Log Cabin was party central for international dignitaries and friends of the Palmers, as well as local farmers and neighbors, in what then was the countryside outside of pre-auto industry Detroit.
In 1893, the Palmers donated land—and soon after gave the cabin—to the City of Detroit with the stipulation that it always remain a park for the enjoyment of all. Log Cabin Day celebrates the rebirth of the cabin and of Palmer Park. People for Palmer Park’s Log Cabin Day sponsors include City of Detroit Parks & Recreation and Detroit General Services Departments and Guernsey Dairy.
