Workers at Historic Hanna’s Town are rebuilding part of Westmoreland County’s colonial history, stacking two-century-old, 20-foot-long logs to give new life what the county historical society is calling its “log skyscraper.”

“It’s unusual (for log houses) because the first-floor ceiling is 10 feet tall. It looks like we are constructing a log skyscraper,” said Lisa Hays, executive director of the Westmoreland County Historical Society. The society operates Historic Hanna’s Town and its cluster of colonial-style buildings in Hempfield.

The two-story log house is being painstakingly reconstructed under the direction of Andrew Lallemand of Lallemand Construction Inc. of Altoona, along with with help from several historical society volunteers.

It was built around 1810 along what is now Hannatown Road, Hays said. The log house was constructed in what has become a remote section of the county-owned property, away from the other buildings around the fort and the historical society headquarters along Forbes Trail Road.

“We’re trying to put it back together as close as possible to what it was,” said Jim Clayton of Greensburg, vice chairman of the historical society.

They are rebuilding the house with its interior fireplace, as near as possible to the original. They have photographs of the house before it was dismantled in 2023.

Metal tags were placed on the logs that were salvageable, designating by letter which side of the house they were located and by numbers, from the foundation to the roof.

Because of some 215 years of enduring all kinds of weather, not all of the logs were salvageable, particularly those on the western side of the house, said Tom Klingensmith of New Kensington, a member of the historical society’s board of directors and a colonial reenactor.

He said about half of the logs were reusable.

“You can look at 1700s history right there,” Klingensmith said, pointing to some of the original grey logs that were hand cut from trees growing in the 18th century.

The house was dismantled in 2023 after sitting vacant for a long time, with a hole in the roof punched by a fallen tree that was allowing rain to lead to more deterioration.

“We were afraid we were going to lose it,” Clayton said. “We thought somebody might damage it or go inside and get hurt.”

The logs and stone foundation were stored in fields. They spent much of last year getting an architect to design the building and following the procedures to obtain a township building permit, Klingensmith said. Before any digging was done for the foundation, architecture students from Indiana University of Pennsylvania conducted digs for artifacts last year.

A cement basement was poured and blocks were laid for the foundation late last year, Klingensmith said, but work had to wait to the weather broke to assemble the logs. Then the bitter winter held them up, he said.

Lallemand said he expects the house will be finished within two months. An interior fireplace is to be built and windows and two doors are to be constructed as well.

The challenge to rebuilding the colonial structures is that “nothing is level, nothing is straight and every saddle joint (joining the logs) is crooked,” Lallemand said. He has built a log cabin and refurbished Fort Roberdeau near Tyrone in Blair County and Fort Loudon near Chambersburg.

“You go 10 steps forward, then 10 steps back. They did not build these things perfectly,” working with hand tools, Lallemand said.

Lallemand and his helpers had an advantage over the colonial craftsman, being able to use an electric saw to cut the wood and nail guns to secure flooring to joists, rather than a holding a broad axe and adz to cut the wood.

The log house, which faces the fort, is being referred to as the “orphan house,” because of its location away from the fort area, Hays said.

When it’s done, the historical society wants to use it for educational purposes, Clayton said.

The project is estimated to cost about $140,000, Hays said.

In addition to the labor costs, the historical society had to pay to get new rough-cut wood for the flooring and some 20-foot-long logs for the sides of the house. All were cut at an Amish-owned sawmill near Smicksburg, Indiana County, Clayton said.

The project received financial support from the Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation of Latrobe, Hays said. She said the organization also received a generous contribution from an anonymous donor.

“This was someone’s home,” said Scott Henry, a historical society board member, a colonial re-enactor and one of the volunteers helping rebuild the house. “This is their story to tell. It needs to be saved.”

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