![]() ![]() According to George LaBounty, who later bought the house, Eugene Parker lived in the house for 52 years. Parker House was built in 1879 across the river from Pioneer Park and was one of East Ferndale's original buildings. ![]() The dress displayed on the mannequin inside the house belonged to Mrs. The wicker lamp in the parlor dates to the 1920s and the wallpaper is thought to be from the 1940s. The house is furnished as it may have been years ago. Weather boarding came from the old Shelter mill on Deer Creek, and the inside ceiling and wall lumber was hand split, hand dressed and tongue and grooved by hand until it looked like the millwork. Each log, some thirty feet long were split and mortised and dovetailed so precisely that no nails are needed to hold them together. The two-story Shields house is a monument to craftsmanship of the early pioneers and specifically to Conrad Shields who constructed the house.Ĭedar trees were cut down, bucked into the proper lengths, and pulled by three ox teams belonging to Shields and his neighbors. It was the second building moved to Pioneer Park in 1950 by the Whatcom Old Settlers Association. Shields House was built on the Old Guide Road south of Wiser Lake in 1885. Today, the Foster House is filled with photographs, letters and other reminders of the past including a handmade license plate, shovel-nosed canoe, a plank from one of the plank roads and a bell from the Ferndale Nooksack River ferry crossing (prior to any bridges). The successful reconstruction of the Foster House displayed the possibility of saving the buildings in a meaningful way. A new frame roof and cedar shingles were added. ![]() The building was dismantled, carried to the park as a log truckload and reassembled into a dovetailed pen on a slab concrete pad. Ross and moved by long time Old Settler Association member William Scrimsher. It was a somewhat crude example of split-cedar log house construction, but its 24-inch thick log walls and two-story height amply demonstrated the general size of regional pioneer log houses. It also serves as the registration booth for the annual Old Settlers Picnic.įoster House, originally constructed in 1895 near Squalicum Lake, was the first cabin moved to Pioneer Park in 1935. The building houses the office for the Ferndale Heritage Society and the Old Settler’s Association. Pioneer Headquarters Building was constructed at Pioneer Park in 1925. The following descriptions of the pioneer park cabins are excerpts of information compiled by Bob Nelson for the website which has extensive additional information. In 1999, the park was placed on the Washington State Heritage Register. In 1993, the Ferndale Heritage Society was formed to assist in managing the cabins and opening them to the public. On June 1, 1972, the Old Settlers Association turned the property over to the City of Ferndale to be operated as a public park. Today these preserved cabins are the most important assemblage of this distinctive regional style of rustic pioneer architecture. The slab cedar houses at Pioneer Park, built in the late 1800s, have all been relocated here from their original sites of construction at various locations around Whatcom County. With an interest in preserving local pioneer history, the Old Settlers Association has gradually moved abandoned pioneer structures to the park beginning in 1935. In 1925, a dance hall building and a headquarters building were constructed at the entrance to the park. Pioneer Park was created from 4 acres of uncut Western Red Cedar trees purchased by the Whatcom Old Settlers Association in 1901 for the purpose of holding its annual pioneer picnic, a continuing tradition that is today considered one of the oldest celebrations of its kind in the Pacific Northwest.
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