00:19 - Welcome to this episode of its history.

00:24 - Today we are in Delaware County, eastern Pennsylvania,

00:27 - on the outskirts of Philadelphia and Upper Darby Township.

00:31 - And we are visiting the lower Sw log cabin.

00:34 - So, as the Swedes would say, wel we're going to show you around

00:37 - and tell you that some of the history of this.

00:41 - One of the first things to note

00:44 - is that our proximity to Derby Creek.

00:47 - Derby Creek flows through Delawa

00:49 - and runs down to Tennant Island, where John.

00:53 - Heinz National Wildlife Refuge I and the Philadelphia Airport is.

00:57 - And in the third governorship of New Sweden Colon.

01:02 - In the 1630s, 40s,

01:05 - 50s, the headquarters was moved

01:09 - from what today is Wilmington, D up to ten and come island.

01:13 - So this creek was a road inland.

01:16 - There were no highways or roads at that time.

01:19 - And so people had to come up to the waterways,

01:22 - and they came up looking for a p to build a cabin.

01:26 - And what they were looking for were boulders in the ground.

01:30 - And you can see it

01:31 - particularly at that corner, because they were new, being thi

01:36 - to to water that could flood, they needed protection against

01:41 - that flooding.

01:42 - And if they could find three sto that would serve as the corners,

01:46 - they could drag stone to a fourt

01:48 - and that building would be anchored against a floo.

01:52 - The next thing to note is that

01:54 - there are two parts to this buil.

01:57 - The first side has white fill between the logs and the ot.

02:02 - The smaller side has stone in th between the logs.

02:07 - That stone filled section was bu five years after the original ca

02:13 - and we know that because you've

02:16 - once in your life counted tree r and you know that each ring repr

02:21 - a year difference,

02:22 - and the logs on that side have five more rings than the origin a.

02:27 - So we know it was an addition ab years after the original cabin w.

02:32 - There's one more thing that I'd like to point out,

02:35 - and that is the the logs notch in the way the logs are cut

02:40 - when they're fit together and th notching

02:45 - is most visible in the middle se between the two sides.

02:49 - And a geographer from the University of Texas at

02:54 - made a trip to Europe, to Sweden and Finland and catalo.

02:59 - Each province has its own style, unique style of notching.

03:03 - And we know that this style of n comes from farmland province,

03:08 - where mostly Finns were living a

03:12 - and when they were looking for I and Finns

03:16 - volunteered to come over because they had been declared o.

03:20 - And coming to America was prefer to going to prison in Sweden.

03:24 - So they came over here and they built this cabin.

03:28 - We know that because of these no.

03:30 - Okay, now we're inside.

03:32 - And, I want to show you some fea.

03:34 - And the most outstanding feature room is the this fireplace, numb.

03:40 - It's a very large size fireplace.

03:43 - Number two, it is diagonally built across th.

03:48 - And three, it is built completely inside th

03:53 - after the walls were

03:54 - constructed, the stone was broug to construct the fireplace.

03:57 - That indicates people coming from a cold climat

04:01 - like Sweden and Finland that are not far from the Arctic

04:06 - and they don't know yet what to in the American winters.

04:10 - And so they're building like they would build at home to

04:14 - and protected against that cold with this fireplace as these as

04:20 - burns in this fireplace and it's burning virtually 24 ho.

04:25 - The stones are heating as well.

04:27 - And the chimney, which is also I the walls of the fireplace,

04:31 - are heating the loft space where the children are sleeping.

04:35 - It's a large shelf at this end of the cabin,

04:38 - and it backs onto the fireplace

04:42 - so that the kids have a warm pla to sleep.

04:45 - The other good thing about the I is when you have some work

04:49 - for the children to do,

04:50 - like husking corn, you put that basket of work up I

04:54 - and then to and have the kids go and then take the ladder down,

04:58 - and the kids aren't allowed down until the work is done.

05:00 - The, next feature here is the, dining.

05:05 - This table is normally stored up against the wall, so it's not,

05:09 - blocking movement around the roo but when it's meal time, it's pu

05:15 - and then the benches are placed around the table and the family.

05:20 - And then after dinner, it goes b and this living space is returne

05:26 - parents sleep on a

05:28 - bed here in the corner that, is double this.

05:33 - This with a second slide would f and a leg would drop down,

05:37 - and you would have a very compac double bed.

05:41 - And that's where the parents sle.

05:43 - If you had overnight guest,

05:45 - they slept here on the floor in front of the fireplace.

05:48 - You would take something like th bare skin down and put it on the.

05:52 - And they would

05:53 - your guests would sleep on it and then you'd give them a blank

05:56 - and they were comfortable through the night.

05:59 - Two other things, that we can se in this corner of the room,

06:02 - the demonstrate the self-reliance of these early

06:07 - is, these animals, skins, fur bearing animals were import a.

06:11 - They were very important in the with native peoples.

06:15 - And there was a demand in Europe for in particular for beaver ski.

06:20 - So we have two beaver skins here to, to bundle up and send back t.

06:26 - But the, animals

06:28 - themselves produced food for the

06:35 - was fur

06:36 - to make clothing and blankets an other commodities that the famil.

06:41 - And then this chair, was was

06:44 - cut from a single tree, a poplar

06:47 - that was this shape and was carv.

06:51 - And when we go in the other room there's a smaller

06:54 - version, a child side version of this same seat, but

06:58 - it shows how self self-reliant

07:00 - and independent these settlers w.

07:04 - They lived in, in isolated family farmstead

07:07 - and relied on each other for their survival.

07:10 - We are now in the, addition.

07:13 - And this addition was built, aga five years after the original ca.

07:18 - We think for some, newly arrived people coming from.

07:22 - In this case, we think, a likely is that a marriageable age,

07:27 - son of the original family, was

07:31 - to, connect with his fiancé.

07:35 - And the two of them started life own little starter house on this.

07:41 - And it has the same proportions the same features as the origin a.

07:45 - It has a stone fireplace, in fro here, again in the corner.

07:51 - And there's a bed here for the c to sleep at.

07:55 - And then, we, we see a dining ta set up here against the wall

08:00 - that could be pulled out, to, to better accommodate, guest.

08:04 - If they had them, if they didn't have guests,

08:06 - they could just sit at this benc where I am and have their meal.

08:11 - An interesting story about this.

08:13 - The side is that, when we came t the restoration of this cabin,

08:19 - we found a small, narrow door

08:23 - in this wall, and we wondered wh

08:27 - those proportions.

08:28 - And in that location.

08:30 - And as we took the door frame of because the door was already mis

08:34 - we found notching in that log

08:37 - on both sides of what would have been an original.

08:41 - And I think the story goes that after a few weeks of living,

08:45 - having to go through, the in-laws, side of that buildi

08:52 - for, for a few weeks, the wife got tired of doing that.

08:56 - And so she asked her husband to create their own separate ent.

09:00 - And what he did was he saw it do through the last two logs

09:04 - at the bottom and constructed a and enclosed that space in their.

09:11 - So, she was able to get, a door that satisfied her.

09:15 - And, happy wife is happy life. S

09:20 - another thing of

09:21 - note in this room, is on the wal behind me are, examples

09:26 - of the kinds of tools that were used to construct this.

09:30 - And the original side of the cab.

09:32 - You see, saws, adds, axes

09:36 - and, a number of, of tools

09:39 - that are only hand tools but are capable of,

09:43 - of constructing a cabin in this has lasted hundreds of years.

09:49 - Although the Swedes and the Finn the original settlers

09:52 - and builders of this cabin, ther many other residents here after.

09:58 - One of the most notable was the that William Penn

10:01 - received a grant

10:02 - from the King of England for the land that included this

10:06 - and when he came to look at it in anticipation of selling it to

10:11 - arriving from England, he saw the advantage of having p

10:16 - where there was already a constructed house

10:18 - and cleared the land, rather than having his English

10:22 - customers have to chop down thei just to get cleared land.

10:26 - So he offered the Swedes ten tim the amount of property that they

10:31 - here.

10:32 - If they would move north or sout

10:35 - west of this property and and ag start clearing additional land,

10:40 - because he anticipated more settlers, two,

10:44 - very English features of this, cabin are visible in this corner.

10:49 - The first or glass windows.

10:52 - When the Swedes were here, they had a sliding board that we

10:56 - and forth in a in a space in the and let in light and ventilation.

11:00 - But when the, English came, they had glass with them

11:05 - and were able to, start some glass making in th.

11:10 - And so this cabin was able to re the sliding boards with glass wi.

11:15 - The other feature is this set of

11:19 - referred to as a half box winder

11:22 - by architects and dates to about

11:26 - which is, a good 150 years after the Swede

11:30 - had settled in, in America.

11:34 - And, so they made improvements.

11:38 - But interestingly enough, this this building

11:41 - has lasted as long as it has because most of its life,

11:44 - including a lot of its English o it was a tenant property,

11:50 - it was rented, not owned by the by the people who lived here.

11:55 - So if you've ever rent it, you know that you're not allowed

11:59 - by your landlord to make alter at and we think that that has enabl

12:04 - this building to keep so many of its original

12:07 - and or features that are very yo

12:10 - in, in, being added to the cabin.

12:13 - So we have a great, representati of two occupations of the cabin,

12:19 - first by the Swedes and Finns and second by the English.

12:23 - I want to call attention to to these two high w

12:27 - one from 1999 and Hurricane Floy and the other from 2020,

12:32 - where water entered the cabin to this depth.

12:37 - But the cabin is still standing.

12:39 - All it did was basically come in under the door, floated some fur

12:43 - and then as the water receded, floated the furniture back down.

12:48 - And again, that's testimony to the skills of the original bu

12:52 - in knowing how to anchor a build this close to a to a creek that.

12:58 - Now we're going to visit the ups room.

13:01 - This room was again only had a loft at each side

13:06 - and did not have a floor all the way across.

13:09 - And it was the English that adde.

13:12 - And when they added these stairs so that there was livable space

13:16 - on the second floor, and the pitch of the roof was al

13:19 - increased so that they could sta and walk around on the second fl.

13:23 - And what's up there now are two.

13:26 - We have one bedroom furnished in the English style

13:29 - with, rope, a rope bed

13:32 - and then a cradle and a rocking because they're expecting

13:36 - their first child.

13:37 - And then, they're, there's a dressing table

13:41 - and a modern convenience.

13:45 - One of the first, examples of in plumbing.

13:48 - It's a chamber pot that's kept under the bed,

13:51 - so that you don't have to run outside at night

13:54 - as this family grew, it needed, some additional stora.

13:58 - And so this, slant roof shed was

14:02 - after the, additions had been bu

14:05 - and is used to store tools,

14:08 - big pots when they're not in use

14:12 - and also in the winter time, you you could put your chickens

14:17 - or even some of your small sheep to protect them from the weather

14:22 - hungry wolves, who lived in the nearby.

14:27 - And so, this was an important ad.

14:30 - And when we went to do the resto we were able

14:34 - to get from the Historic America Survey,

14:37 - full size blueprints of this bui

14:40 - when it was surveyed in 1930 by.

14:45 - WPA.

14:48 - Architects and engineers who were surveying

14:51 - historic American buildings in addition to the,

14:56 - stone, the shed that's attached to the building.

14:59 - We also had one outbuilding here

15:01 - our restoration contractor, Norm found an intact smokehouse

15:07 - down in Maryland, took it apart, and then reassembled it here.

15:11 - And the, second year that it was

15:15 - a large branch fell down and damaged the buildi.

15:18 - But enough.

15:19 - Not enough that we we lost it.

15:22 - We were able to repair it.

15:23 - And then just this past summer, Norm was here doing restoration

15:28 - and had just stepped away from the building when he heard.

15:33 - And a tree fell right down

15:35 - the middle of the smokehouse and imploded it.

15:38 - And so we think that, stories of the fact that the

15:43 - Finns, who we believe built

15:45 - this cabin, bury their dead in h

15:50 - there may be some spirits up on

15:53 - this hill behind us that don't I

15:56 - and, and foreign building added to the property.

16:00 - And so they have taken steps twi remove the building, and they su.

16:05 - This second time, we're seriousl reconsidering the whole idea of

16:10 - a smokehouse back there after this experience.

16:14 - Thank you for coming today on behalf of the friends

16:16 - of the Swedish Cabin and Upper Darby Township.

16:20 - This site is is open to the publ

16:23 - from April to October, on Sundays from 1 to.

16:27 - And there's information available on our website.

16:31 - Again, thank you for visiting.

16:50 - Your.