Work underway to restore Massy Harbison cabin in New Kensington to original state

Restoring the Massy Harbison cabin in New Kensington to today’s specs would take no time at all, contractor Jim Palumbo said.

Trying to replicate its 1790-era appearance is another story.

“We have to wait for rough-cut lumber to do the roof because they didn’t have plywood back then,” said Palumbo, owner of Encompass Building Group.

Palumbo said hand-split cedar shingles will be installed on the cabin, which is on wooded grounds along Oates Boulevard and Route 56 near Valley High School.

The foundation, sinking because of rotted logs, will be replaced with stone and grout.

“We want to duplicate what they had in the 1700s. We’re trying to keep it as it was,” Palumbo said.

Massy Harbison was a pioneer woman who, in the 1790s, was taken hostage by Native Americans from her home in what is now Allegheny Township.

In 1959, the Fort Crawford Association learned a pioneer cabin near Butler was going to be demolished for the Route 422 Bypass construction. Historians say the cabin was believed to be occupied by Harbison toward the end of her life.

It was rumored to have been moved to Upper Burrell before settling in New Kensington. Only nobody knew for sure whether that had actually happened.

Enter Betty Beestrice.

The Upper Burrell woman isn’t quite sure why she has a photograph of the cabin when it was in Upper Burrell, how she got it or where it came from.

But she has the definitive evidence the cabin was, indeed, in Upper Burrell at some point between 1959 to 1976.

To New Kensington-area historians, that’s the missing puzzle piece.

“This is incredible proof that the cabin was moved from Butler to Upper Burrell,” said Millie Pipman, a member of the Massy Harbison-Fort Hand Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. “We know the history of its movement to the current Massy Harbison Park.”

The information is key to the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter, the Tri-City Historical Society and the City of New Kensington, who are spearheading the effort to restore the cabin.

Officials and historians hope to transform the oft-overlooked cabin into a visible and educational site.

Workers Josh Guzzi of Apollo and Don McKrisky of Upper Burrell spent Wednesday afternoon laying stones and replacing water-damaged floorboards.

Construction is expected to take weeks, if not months. Palumbo said he’ll likely end up taking the windows home to reconstruct them.

The project is expected to cost at least $100,000. New Kensington Council will seek grants to offset the cost.