It took just three weeks for crews to carefully dismantle the Gilliland Cabins in South Hills.
While the cabins no longer sit on the four-acre property at the corner of Bridge and Louden Heights roads, the salvaged logs, boards and hand-cut stones from the cabins will be used for an upcoming project in Kanawha County.
Charleston lawyer William Pepper owns Benedict Haid Farm in Clendenin, a rural retreat for weddings and other events. It's also the site of a large log house and two small cabins to accommodate guests.
But one of the cabins, Pepper said, is no longer fit for use.
"That's the main use for these [salvaged] logs. I'm going to start tearing down the cabin this fall after rentals are over and begin the process of planning and building another cabin," Pepper said.
Some of the materials will also be used to make repairs to the barn, which dates back to the 1860s, he said.
He first approached developer J.D. Stricklen a few months ago and offered to have the cabins dismantled if he could take materials that could be reused. Stricklen, who purchased the property in February, agreed.
But when his crews began working to remove the cabins one piece at a time using hand tools, Pepper discovered most of the usable bits weren't original.
"I would say about two-thirds of what I ended up retaining was not from the original cabins, but were installed in 1978," he said.
That was the year Jean Miller's family built their home on the property, during which time the cabins were restored and many features were replaced.
"Back in the old days, they took whatever side boards they could make - they weren't uniform," Pepper said.
He added that the majority of the boards that made up the floor and ceiling were "exactly the same width. That means it was made at a saw mill; it had saw blade marks on it."
Pepper also said the flooring in one of the cabins contained tongue and groove boards, which hadn't yet been invented when the cabins were first erected in 1848.
The "decrepit nature" of the cabins made their dismantling a challenge, he said.
"I planned on having a truck come in with a crane on it to lift the logs off, but it was so unstable, they had to manually start taking them down," Pepper said.
But his crews were still able to save what he believes are original materials, such as the beams supporting the ceiling in the larger cabin and the hand-cut stones that form the base of the chimney.
"I was surprised and thrilled to get the stone ... it's 18 inches thick, chiseled by hand and beautiful," Pepper said. "Those, to me, are very desirable."
He had hoped to also acquire the stone that completely lined the cellar beneath the smaller cabin, but didn't have the money to complete the "mammoth task."
"They were mortared in - we would have needed an excavator, so we had to leave those behind," Pepper said.
While he's never used the same plot to tear down and build a new cabin at Benedict Haid Farm, Pepper has a vision for what he wants the new structure to look like once he accumulates more logs.
He said he's "always admired" the Ruffner Cabin off U.S. 60 in Daniel Boone Park.
"I'd really love to replicate [it]. That was my goal, and I think I've got the logs to build one like that."
Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.