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New Castle’s oldest building is for sale. The two-story log house built on South Main Street by James Pearce during the 1790s is available for restoration on site from the Kentucky Trust for Historic Preservation, Inc., a statewide historic preservation organization. Few
communities in Kentucky are fortunate enough to have such an early
landmark surviving into the 21st century, noted Bob Polsgrove, President
of the Kentucky Trust. “We are calling it the Pearce-Capito Log House in recognition of its association with a founding family, the Pearces, and its later association with the Capito family. Although some early rooms once attached to the rear of the house had to be demolished due to their condition, this sizeable log house, what remains provides someone interested in restoration with a lot to work with, Polsgrove noted. This saddlebag form house is 36 feet in length and 19 feet deep with a large central brick chimney with flues in both of the downstairs rooms.
“I think the community was fortunate that the fire was caught early enough that the structure could be saved. A new roof and roof deck were installed after the fire using the original rafters and only two of the ceiling joists on the second floor will need replacing,” Polsgrove noted. Some paint on original features was melted off but most of the damage was to non-historic paneling and drywall materials that were added long after the log house was built.
The buyer and succeeding owners will be required to
rehab and repair the historic house consistent with the Secretary of
Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation... The property will be sold with
a Historic Deed Covenant, which will require the owner and succeeding
owners to obtain the approval of the Kentucky Trust before making any
changes or additions to the house and for it to be inspected annually to
insure that the historic features are being preserved. Those interested in seeing the property or in obtaining more
information may call the Kentucky Trust at 502-875-1223.
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About the Trust |
General Evans House |
Hilliard-Herndon House More about log construction of the Pearce House, New Castle, Kentucky The Pearce Log house in New Castle, KY is an unusual example of an urban log house. Kentucky's early town development included lots of log architecture, perhaps even most of the houses being log, but most of those early buildings have been lost to fires and to redevelopment, predominantly in masonry. Scattered examples of log town houses can be found in cities such as Bardstown, Warsaw, and Lexington, providing us a glimpse of early domestic urban development in Kentucky. This glimpse is instructive as it contradicts common assumptions about the use of logs in house construction. Most people today associate log construction exclusively with log cabins, assuming that any house constructed of logs is a "log cabin." Historically, however, cabins and houses were distinct categories, and either could be built of logs. There is evidence that log cabins were once considered as low class, and were seen with about as much regard as some of us hold for mobile homes today. For example, in the Presidential campaign of 1840, William Henry Harrison's opponent attempted to hurt his image by associating him with log cabins and hard cider (a popular, inexpensive intoxicating beverage of the time, akin to beer). This backfired when Harrison embraced the epithet as a way of creating a populist reputation. In the process, he changed the reputation of the log cabin as well. The difference between cabins and houses is a matter of degree, like the difference between houses and mansions - the line between is not always a clear one. Cabins are a type of house, but not all houses are cabins, and we usually mean something more substantial than a cabin when we say "house". Cabins do not have to be built of log: Webster's defines one as "a small, one-story dwelling, usually of simple construction." Usually, cabins are single room houses, square or rectangular, sometimes with a loft or second half story, in the general range of 12 feet square to as large as 18 x 24 feet. But something that is not a cabin - a true house - can also have just a single downstairs room. The Cabin might or might not be owner-built, and the same is true of the house. The primary difference is an economic one: thrift and speed of construction are the primary attributes of the cabin; a sizable investment in labor and materials are the hallmarks of the house. The cabin is intended for more temporary inhabitation, the house for long-term use. Log construction was used to create the primary structure of buildings ranging from very crude cabins to elaborate and well-finished houses, often quite large ones, as well as various sorts of public and agricultural buildings. Probably the vast majority of houses that existed in antebellum Kentucky were log, and probably the majority of them were cabins. Cabins, however, were never intended to be permanent dwellings, so they only survive long periods under extraordinary circumstances, such as when they are encased in a barn, or enclosed in a series of later additions to a house. We might expect that most log houses that survive to the present were intended to be more permanent than cabins, and observation of the structures confirms this. Most of them had weatherboards applied as part of original construction or within a decade of initial construction. This was done for appearances - they wanted the house to look like a finished frame house - for maintenance reasons, and for weatherproofing. In urban areas, log cabins were less common than in rural areas, due to a number of factors such as higher land values, more prominent public presence, and even early fire regulations that prohibited the wood chimneys that were a common feature of many log cabins. We do find more log cabins surviving from later periods of time - the late 19th century to the early 20th century. At the same time, we find relatively few well-finished log houses from this later period. The reason for this is that newer construction methods, balloon framing in particular, replaced most log construction after about the middle of the 19th century. Log construction continued mainly in more rural areas without convenient access to lumber yards or railroads, and tended to be used for lower quality houses. Consequently, the quality of the craft declined. The Pearce house has several features that distinguish it from a cabin. It appears to have begun as a single-pen, two story house, but had a an addition next to the chimney end that more than doubled its size very early on, creating two rooms on each floor in a saddlebag configuration. It has a substantial brick chimney, finely finished mantles, baseboard, chair rail, and a hearthside cupboard. It was also covered with weatherboards originally or very early on. Most of the weatherboards we now see under the asbestos siding are from the late 19th or early 20th century, but wider, beaded edge weather boards are still present in the once exposed gable end next to the chimney where the first addition went on, and also appear underneath the gable of where the rear ell was attached. Beaded weatherboards such as these are commonly found in a pre-1820 context. The log walls also were covered inside with wide, vertical beaded-edge boards. This very early style treatment was also probably original finish. When the Pearce house was completely finished, no logs were visible anywhere on the building, with the possible exception of inside closets or other secondary spaces. This was common practice with higher quality log houses, as the occupants wanted to project an image of neatness and cleanliness, for their own comfort and sense of style, and to distinguish themselves from people who lived in cruder, less comfortable log cabins, such as slaves, tenants, and settlers. Although the log cabin was not revered when the Pearce house was built, over time the log cabin has evolved into a symbol of pioneer fortitude in political campaigns and in media such as songs, stories, movies, and television, to the point where it is now widely celebrated as an American icon. This, however, has had consequences for higher quality log houses. Today when log houses are renovated, more often than not, the weatherboards are removed to expose the logs - the house is made into a cabin. This creates several potential problems, mainly by exposing the logs to the weather and water infiltration. In several cases where weatherboards have been removed from log houses it has been observed that in the space of less than two decades some of the logs have rotted to the point that they need to be entirely replaced - this after over 150 years under weatherboards in excellent condition. This is not unusual - it's typical of log houses that have had their siding removed for a while - rotting is usually evident before a decade has passed, often after only a few years. While an aggressive maintenance plan of regularly renewing coatings such as sealants and anti-fungal treatments on the logs and patching chinking can delay rotting indefinitely, it is the rare owner who is willing to undertake such an intensive maintenance program. This is a major reason why many of the log houses that were not sided to begin with soon got covered over. Keeping weatherboards on the Pearce House is a historically accurate interpretation, and they will help to preserve the building. It would play an educational role, as visitors could learn that log houses were often covered with weatherboards historically, and that such treatment is entirely appropriate.
Prepared for The Kentucky Trust for Historic Preservation by: Bill Macintire
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