This Pennsylvania bank log cabin was built over 200 years ago by Thomas and Mary Ann Berry Rich, who came to Symmes Township in Hamilton County from Fayette County, Pennsylvania. It was originally located about one mile from it's current site on what is now known as Rich Road. The section of land was given to Jacob Rich for service as a General in the American Revolutionary War.
The logs are hand hewn from native white oak, hickory and walnut trees (all but four of the logs are original). One course of chinking has been recreated with hand-sized stones - exactly as it was 200 years ago. Chinking is used to fill the gaps between the logs. The stones in the fireplace are the original stones from the log cabin, quarried on the site. The cabin was built into the side of a hill which provided protection and warmth to the interior. There were two fireplaces, one on the ground floor and one on the second, sharing a chimney. The fireplace was used for both cooking and heat for the building. The roof is made of cedar shingles, in the old fashioned way. The loft, added to the original log cabin years later, was used for sleeping quarters; 13 people lived there at one time. The cabin is only 20' by 20', a small space for such a large family!
In the late 1980’s, Kris & Angie Hawk, daughter and son-in-law of the museum director, JoAnn Richardson, began a remodeling project on their home on Rich Road. To their surprise, what they found under the stucco, was the original Rich Log Cabin, built in 1797. Years of many families in the house had erased the memory of the exact site of the historic landmark.
The Hawks wanted to keep history alive so after many unsuccessful attempts to donate the cabin to the city, they decided to donate it to the Greater Loveland Historical Society Museum. Fund raising began in 1994 and the cabin was moved log by log to the site for reconstruction. GLHSM received a grant of $10,000 from the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and $15,000 from the City of Loveland. Members and many Rich family descendants and local organizations also contributed to the project. Work was completed in 1995. That same year, GLHSM was awarded the Hamilton County Recorder’s Griffin Yeatman Historical Achievement Award for public awareness of preservation. The cabin provides students and other community members a sense of how life might have been 200 years ago.
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