preserving what's left

sandy springs is turning the point above morgan falls dam into a nice park ---- it's a fantastic view --- when they cleared away the privet, bamboo, and kudzu, theydiscovered a home site that everybody had forgotten about --- the house was probably built by Joseph Power in the late 1820s, before he moved across the river in the 1830s --- three of his sons built log houses for their own families on the cobb county side of the river in the early 1840s, two of which are still standing, one of which is at the core of hyde farm --- another son took the old house here and operated a ferry just below where there was a ford in the river

the great stone chimney once stood at one end of a log house and is a very fine piece of craftsmanship --- it had a typical lean, caused by erosion of the ground at that end of the house and was in desperate need of repointing --- the city of sandy springs was on the verge of just knocking it down and using the stone to build a "fire pit," and when some people pointed out that might not be the thing to do, they said they were gonna "reconstruct" it --- caused a big brouhaha, but fortunately a lot of voices got their attention and jack pyburn, one of the best hist. pres. architects around, was able to design a very ingenious support system that obviated the need for deconstruction, which would have destroyed the very craftsmanship they thought they were "preserving"

they're real proud of it now

thnx for the "after" images, morning