Last updated: 4/24/2011
304 E Robinson StCarmi, IL 62821
The State of Illinois contacted the Society in 1994 about a covered log cabin located along the right of way of Illinois Route 1 and in 1996 the Matsel Cabin was opened to the public. The state provided research and moving services on the structure, located approximately three miles south of Carmi. The society purchased a lot next to the Old Graveyard, which had been deeded to the society by its trustees in 1990, and secured a $20,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs to restore the structure.
In the process we learned a lot about 1850's era log cabins, which were built with the logs as a frame and were generally meant to have clapboard siding. The front room was painted with milkpaint and furnished in the manner that the Matsel family would have lived in the 1850s. The kitchen, which was added in the 1890s and is constructed of "beaded board", a form of tongue and grove siding, was restored to that era.
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