The Revolving Fund’s success continued into 1991, when it received a c. 1830 log dogtrot cabin from Inland-Rome Inc., a timber company. Located on the border of Heard and Carroll counties, the cabin’s original dogtrot style, which is marked by an open hallway connecting two independent rooms, had been altered in the early 20th century when the hallway was enclosed to accommodate the dwelling’s new function as a tenant house.  The Revolving Fund hoped to locate a buyer willing to restore the home, and it found one in Julie Turner, who purchased the cabin in March 1992. Planning to establish the cabin as her residence, Ms. Turner carefully stabilized the structure and improved it without compromising its rustic appeal. The cabin’s design and location figure prominently in Heard County history. Besides representing the only example of the dogtrot style in the five county Chattahoochee-Flint region, the cabin also indicates the early area’s settlement patterns following the 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs, which promoted westward expansion in Georgia.

Log dog trot before (above) and after (below)

Following the Civil War, Confederate soldier Thomas Mercer Banks acquired the property, which included a central home, and began farming it. He later passed the property on to his son Caldwell Banks, a prosperous cotton farmer who moved off the land in 1905. 

Although it remained in the Banks family until 1986 when it passed to Inland-Rome Inc., the cabin was used exclusively as a tenant house after 1910. During this time, the cabin’s facade underwent substantial modifications. The only surviving documentation of the cabin’s original dogtrot design is a 1895 photograph of the Banks family in which the cabin appeared in the background. Ms. Turner based her efforts to restore the cabin on this remaining photograph, and she proved instrumental in compiling the cabin’s historical background for the Trust. 

The successful partnership between the Revolving Fund of The Georgia Trust and Ms. Turner brought another historic dwelling in danger of destruction back into a vital state of use. Although she did not reopen the cabin’s hallway as in a true dogtrot, Ms. Turner’s emphasis on stabilizing the structure and making it into her home kept the house standing, thereby granting others at least a glimpse into the lives of past Georgians.

Do you know of an endangered historic property in your town? The Georgia Trust may be able to help. Contact Frank White, Revolving Fund director, at 404-885-7807. 

-Matt Rahn