Hammond Cabin Update
Hammond Cabin Rehabilitation
National Park Service staff raising the Hammond Cabin to prepare for the new foundation. Credit: National Park Service Learn More
Hammond Cabin Rehabilitation
The Hammond Cabin's failed foundation walls were removed and perimeter trenches were excavated for new concrete footers and foundation walls. Credit: National Park Service Learn More
Hammond Cabin Rehabilitation
National Park Service staff working on the Hammond Cabin's new foundation. Credit: National Park Service Learn More
Hammond Cabin Rehabilitation
Bekit Volunteers from the YMCA helped with the Hammond Cabin's rehabilitation. Credit: National Park Service Learn More
Hammond Cabin Rehabilitation
Preparing for the Hammond Cabin's new concrete footers. Credit: National Park Service Learn More
Hammond Cabin Rehabilitation
Pouring the Hammond Cabin's new foundation. Credit: National Park Service Learn More
Originally built as living quarters for Harold Hammond, his second wife, Marion Galey Hammond and her son Frank, the Hammond Cabin will be rehabilitated to provide a residential unit for an onsite caretaker and a dining room and community kitchen for trainees staying in the ranch cabins at the White Grass Dude Ranch. The cost to complete this work is $268,897.
July 27, 2009-Work being completed on the interior of the Hammond Cabin
Credit: Barb Pahl, NTHP
Rehabilitation of the Hammond Cabin began in the summer of 2008. Work included exterior wall log replacement, foundation replacement, roof repair and ADA upgrades. Exterior windows and doors were re-installed after fabrication or preservation treatment.
The Hammond Cabin will be reconfigured to incorporate a two bedroom residential unit at the north end of the structure and commercial kitchen and dining room at the south end of the building. New kitchens and bathrooms would be constructed to serve each side of the building. The residential side of the structure would be utilized as a caretakers quarters. The new configuration required the removal of the damaged and deteriorating bathroom addition of the southwest side. The Hammond Cabin will have a dining room and community kitchen for trainees staying in the other ranch cabins. With multiple different users of the kitchen and dining room the cabin will need to be ADA compliant. The interior wood doors and frames where retrofitted with ADA compliant hardware in the dining room, community kitchen and bathroom facilities.
Work also focused on the installation of a new foundation and sill logs as phase one of its total rehabilitation. This allowed us to remove trees and shrubs growing adjacent to the cabin. To facilitate the installation of shoring for the log walls all of the interior floor systems were removed. Steel I beam were inserted to support the logs and the entire failed foundation walls were removed. Once the cabin was raised, the perimeter foundation trenches were excavated for new concrete footers and foundation walls. Before the cabin was lowered on the new foundation with a crawlspace, all deteriorated sill logs were replaced. The work of this phase was labor intensive requiring substantial restaging of the steel I-beams to support the structure for 4 different concrete pours with a total of 50 cu yards of concrete.
Hammond Cabin, in 2009, with new log sills and a new foundation.
Credit: National Park Service
Phase II of the project is underway and will include the installation of new kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, closets, and restoration of interior finishes, doors, and wood floors. Stone fireplaces and hearths will be cleaned.
An additional phase of the rehabilitation was the roof of the structure which was taken down to the planking and the rotten planking was replaced with in-kind materials.
The scheduled completion date for the Hammond Cabin Rehabilitation project is September 30, 2009.
