Jude Plum purchased a house with plans to renovate the squatty eyesore into a livable cottage.
But as Plum, 71, removed layers of exterior from the project home he bought out of pre-foreclosure, another structure revealed itself -- a log cabin and one of the oldest houses in Pennsylvania, built in 1704.
"This is the beginning of our country," Plum told philly.com. "I want to put it on the National Register."
Plum renovated the house and traced its history.
The cabin was originally built by Rees Thomas, a Welsh Quaker, after he purchased hundreds of acres of land from William Penn in 1682.
The logs were covered in clapboard during Revolutionary times in the late 1700s. Horace Cornog, who Plum knew as a child growing up in the neighborhood, bought the home in 1894.
The home was painstakingly restored. Each log was removed and hand-sewn using traditional methods. Another 18th century log cabin was purchased from elsewhere in Pennsylvanian in order to use the similar vintage white oak. Period window panes were also tracked down and installed.
The cabin does feature some modern touches in the kitchen and bathroom.
While the cabin sat like a capsule beneath the five layers of facade, the countryside evolved into a bustling city.
"My goal was that, 'When I'm done it will look like it's always been there,'" Roland Cadle, who restored the house for Plum, told philly.com.
Plum plans to donate the home one day to the Lower Merion Township so it can become a children’s museum.
“I thought it would be a challenge,” Plum said. “I’m a very visual person. I just thought, ‘I’m gonna make this work.’”
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