Joe Herrle, left, and Jeremy Hess, of Logs and Timbers, LLC, remove a long log from a work bench on the south side of the Historic Jackson House in this April 2017 file photo.
The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission has scheduled a dedication for the newly restored historic Jackson House in Chehalis.
The ceremony is scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. Oct. 6 at the Jackson House State Park Heritage Site located at 4277 Jackson Highway south of Chehalis.
In the past year, Washington State Parks made numerous improvements to the site, including restoring the cabin’s front porch, replacing its roof and rotten logs, repaired water damage behind the chimney and reconstructed built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
John R. Jackson built the first cabin on the property that now sits along Jackson Highway in 1845. In 1850, he built a larger cabin, which later became the historic meeting place and courthouse known as the Jackson House.
The building that currently bears the name of the Jackson House is a 1915 copy of Jackson’s 1850 cabin, built by Jackson’s granddaughter Anna Koontz and the St. Helens Club of Chehalis, a women’s club still active today. The property became a state park that year.
The copy contained some portions of the 1850 cabin, including its original stairway.
As part of the restoration project, Washington State Parks added three new interpretive panels and a regraded parking lot including a wheelchair-accessible paved patch to the cabin’s porch.
The cabin was repaired by the CCC in 1934.
The restoration project was funded by the Washington State Parks 2015-2017 capital budget and cost $216,000.
