John Glenn Cabin

[trailmix]

Hello,

I came across this website when looking for information on restoring Heritage Buildings in Calgary.

I hope you all can help me.

John Glenn, who donated the land this church (mentioned in the above article) [ edit: St Pat's article here http://www.calgaryheritage.org/CHIForum/vi ... .php?t=158 ] is built on, was the first European settler in the Calgary area.

Since 1999 John and Adelaide Glenn's first homestead, a log cabin, has been languishing in storage at Fish Creek Park. I have spoken with the site manager and the 200 to 300 thousand dollars required to reconstruct this building just isn't in the budget.

John Glenn is my Great Great Grandfather, so I also have a personal interest in seeing it reconstructed.

I intend to raise the funds, however I don't even know where to start. I am hoping that some of you with experience in this area can help me.

Any and all suggestions are very welcome.

Thank you for your help,

Maureen Marshall
johnglenncabin@shaw.ca

[Chris E]

The biggest question I have about this building is this:

Why would it take $250,000 to $500,000 to reconstruct a log cabin that I'm sure Mr Glenn built with his own (and possible a few colleagues) hands? That figure sounds astronomical.

[trailmix]

Hi Chris,

That's a very good question, I don't actually know the answer.

I spoke with the Fish Creek manager last week and he told me that 3 years ago they had an estimate done - it was $150,000. He thought perhaps with the boom in Calgary this might have doubled.

Granted, these figures represent rebuilding the cabin to historical correctness, but I was also wondering about this when I saw the article yesterday. I'm not sure how the price jumped to $250-500.

I wonder where I could find out what the real figure is and who does this type of work?

Maureen

[Chris E]

Just seems like you could have one supervisor making sure things are done accurately, and then the rest would just be manual labour, which even volunteers might be able to do.

[trailmix]

I absolutely agree with you and in fact I don't think it necessarily has to be historically 'perfect' - while the general cabin has to be right, I don't think it's necessary to hand hew the logs as it were. What isn't original is a reproduction and while it should look good, it isn't John Glenn's work so it doesn't matter if it is done by hand.

What is important is to put the original logs back where they were.

Hopefully the Minister for Community Development will be more positive than the Fish Creek representative.

[Chris E]

I mean can you imagine if you called up someone like Beattie homes and said you wanted them to build a small log cabin on some land you owned and they quoted you $500,000?

[trailmix]

Well - you gave me a good laugh with that analogy.

If I had any control over the cabin, which I don't, I would rather have volunteers with supervision, as you mentioned, reconstruct the cabin - there are probably enough Glenn descendents to do all the work required (although we would be happy to accept all help!).

Maureen

[Chris E]

[trailmix]

[jill]

Hi,

I was wondering what state the cabin and site are in now, and how your campaign is going. (I just found this thread today).

Best wishes,

jill
________

[newsposter]

I am not sure how often this thread is visited by the John Glenn cabin advocates. Suggest you email Maureen Marshall at johnglenncabin@shaw.ca

Post what you find out...

[trailmix]

When the new government came in I wrote to Ed Stelmach about John Glenn's cabin.

The wood from the original cabin in still in storage at Fish Creek, still no plans to rebuild.

They have agreed to release the wood to Fort Calgary, I am going to be contacting them shortly to see if they are interested.