A Traveler's Guide to Rutherford County's Log Architecture

The log buildings built by their forebears during the settlement period have fascinated Tennesseans for years. Constructed from native timber and stone, the log structures literally grew from the soil they stood on. These early dwellings consisted of two main types: the log cabin and the log house.

The log cabin, used by the people who first settled the backcountry, was usually a single, windowless room consisting of round, unpeeled logs joined at the corners with an easily formed saddle notch. Most cabins had puncheon floors and stick-and-dirt chimneys lined with clay and rock. Occasionally the hearth was located right on the dirt floor with only a smoke hole at the ridge. The log cabin's simplicity and iron-free construction fit perfectly in a heavily wooded rural environment.

The most common log house built in Rutherford County was the one-room type, usually 16 to 20 feet long, 14 to 18 feet wide and one story high. These buildings were the earliest permanent dwellings constructed by the farming families who migrated west. The houses were crowded, with plenty of children and often grandparents too, but they served their initial purposes of shelter and protection well.

Eventually, most frontier families outgrew their houses and longed for more space. Log buildings posed few obstacles to expansion because it was easy enough to construct another log room adjacent to the first. The single-room log house became the basic building block for further construction during the settlement years. The houses featured on this tour demonstrate several varieties that still remain scattered throughout the county.