The Cabin at HOMS

The Cabin at the House of Many Stairs has a history all its own. The documentation passed down through the owners of the story is an array of photographs from the deconstruction in Tyrone, PA (which is near Altoona), to the reconstruction on the HOMS site. 

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The story we were told was passed down from Bruce and Nancy Saunders' ownership and it goes something like this:

 

Bruce was a hobby writer that used to work on site and wanted a cabin in the woods. After looking around and not finding anything they desired, Nancy said, "why don't we just put it here on our property where it faces the woods - and then its right here?"

 

They found the cabin near Altoona. It had been under vinyl siding for years. Nobody realized it was a log cabin until somebody found it and dated it. It was built around 1800. You could see there were other places where the rafters had come together which made them think it was built from logs from an early 1700's log cabin.

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They numbered every log, everything that was part of the cabin, had it dismantled, brought it to Pennsdale and put it all back together. A new foundation with a crawl space was constructed and electrical was run to the site. They added a front porch and side porch, raised the roof and installed a new metal roof to match the HOMS roof.

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Last, they took a couple of the logs, planed them down, finished and installed them in the HOMS kitchen as flooring. 

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When we bought the property in 2021, we knew that we wanted to eventually use the Cabin as a place for our friends and family to stay and as a Realtor® recognizing the investment we had, I started looking into the possibility of turning it into a short-term vacation rental. 

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We started searching for furnishings and talking about the design and how many people we wanted to accommodate. We found and reclaimed a claw foot tub from a nearby farm; bought a really cool antique sink cabinet from our neighbor's store (Country Store Antiques and Decor), found a set of plaid couches near Philadelphia and brought an amazing Restore find from Colorado - a Kohler hand-painted pedestal sink.

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In August 2023 we started the excavation (B&C Excavating) to add water and sewer and started the construction of the bathroom in September (Top Notch Interiors) and kitchen water lines.  

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In mid-October we welcomed our first visitors from Maryland and shortly after adding our listing on short term rental sites we were contacted by Phillip Dillon who shared his story of the cabin with us. His father, Marvin Dillon, was born in the cabin in 1934, along with two of his other 7 siblings in 1932 (Rudy) and 1938 (Ramona). Phillip and Marvin (now 90) made the trip in 2023 to come visit Marvin's birthplace and we were able to hear about even more history of the cabin. 

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Marvin's family acquired the cabin at the beginning of the depression by moving into a vacant farmhouse at the top of a mountain hill about 5 miles from the nearest town as squatters. They had relocated from New York when his father lost his job and decided to return to his birthplace (Pennsylvania) and farming. They lived in the log house from 1929 to 1940 when they then moved to a newly constructed house in Cook Hollow.

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If you ever book a stay at the Cabin, you can read all about Marvin's childhood adventures and memories of living in the Pennsylvania mountains in his Life Stories memoir that we are lucky to have a copy of. 

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