Time Crunch: Historic Lower Saucon Cabin Could Be Demolished

A rare log cabin dating to the dawn of the 19th century is running out of time in Lower Saucon Township, and the people trying to save it say they have months, not years, to pull it off.

The Springfield Cabin, a standalone stone-and-log structure that Lower Saucon Township historian Mark Connar believes is the only one of its kind still standing in the area, landed on Preservation Pennsylvania’s 2026 Pennsylvania At Risk list last month. 

The statewide nonprofit reserves the designation for historic properties facing what it calls “credible threats,” and the cabin qualifies. Its roof is failing, wood is rotting, and its condition, in Connar’s words, is “extremely bad.”

Only a handful of properties make the list each year. The cabin was one of five statewide to earn a spot in 2026, and Connar notes the stakes are real. One of the other properties named this year has already been demolished.

A Cabin the Township Almost Forgot

The cabin’s story stretches back to the earliest days of European settlement in eastern Pennsylvania. According to Connar, the original owner bought the land from the sons of William Penn and built the cabin near an active spring, which is how it earned the “Springfield” name. 

It has carried a few names over the years, including the Getter Cabin, but has changed remarkably little since the late 1700s. That’s what makes it unusual. Connar explained that most log cabins from that era got swallowed up over time, absorbed into larger stone houses as farm families grew more prosperous. This one never was. 

It has no running water and only a stray electrical line someone ran to it at some point. Otherwise, it looks much as it would have when the region’s first settlers were clearing pasture.

The land has been owned by the Hellertown Borough Authority since 1944, when the water utility bought up a cluster of farms in Lower Saucon Township to protect the springs feeding the town’s water supply. One of those farms held the cabin. Morris Dimmick, a driving force behind the authority’s early days and the namesake of Hellertown’s Morris Dimmick Park, pushed to preserve the structure even then, arguing future generations should be able to learn from it.

Two Parties, Same Goal

This is not a preservation battle in the usual sense. Connar was emphatic that the Saucon Legacy Trust, the nonprofit leading the effort, is working with the borough authority, not against it.

The authority, he said, wants the cabin saved, too. Its hands are simply tied. It collects ratepayer money to run a water and sewer system, not to maintain a deteriorating cabin, and it can’t carry the liability of a derelict, vandalism-prone building on its property indefinitely. So the two sides are trying to find a path forward together.

That path starts with $60,000 that needs to be raised.

Connar said the trust has been in touch with contractors from the Lancaster area who specialize in 19th-century wood and stone construction.

The first phase would carefully dismantle the wood parts of the cabin, salvage every usable piece, label exactly where each came from and store them safely while the stone walls are stabilized. From there, the trust envisions interpretive signage and even augmented reality, letting visitors scan a QR code on-site to see the cabin rebuilt digitally, inside and out, as it looked around 1800.

Fully rebuilding the physical cabin would come later and cost significantly more. But without that first $60,000, Connar warned, the authority may have no choice but to level it.

The People Behind the Push

The Saucon Legacy Trust launched only a couple of months ago, to help preserve exactly this kind of orphan property – historic sites that exist outside the mandates of the immediate area’s three existing historical societies. 

The group is small, with three board members. Vivian Demko, a longtime resident of the Hellertown and Lower Saucon area, serves as president. Gwenn Ackerman is secretary, and her ties to the property run deep, while Connar rounds out the board as treasurer.

Springfield Cabin is the trust’s first project. Whether it becomes a lasting one depends on the community, and on the clock.

Why It Matters

For Connar, the pitch comes down to something simple. History doesn’t become real, he argued, until you can stand in front of it.

“I think kids can read about that stuff, but it doesn’t really become real until you can physically go and see it, touch it and really kind of understand it,” he said. “And a property like this is important, because people are important.”

Connar described a setting that hasn’t changed much in two centuries, the cabin sitting on open pasture “not all that different than it would have been back in colonial times.” Get it into shape, he said, and people will come. 

“It really allows people to grow in terms of their own intellect, understanding and appreciation of how they fit into a place and how the place has been developed over time,” Connar said. “It’s all about people and having our own sense of heritage, place and the future generations being able to really understand and appreciate it in a real way.”

Time, he acknowledged, is the enemy. He’s hoping the community sees the value in preserving the Springfield Cabin before the clock runs out. Connar noted there is no firm deadline to raise funds, however, the group cannot remain idle in its efforts.

“Maybe this isn’t going to necessarily make my own personal property any nicer, but there’s an opportunity that I can do something for this community that I love, which will stand the test of time,” Connar said. “My children and my grandchildren will be able to understand our heritage in a way that can’t be found just by looking at a book or picking up a picture on an iPad. It’s a chance to physically go see, touch and understand.”

How to Help

Those interested in learning more about the Springfield Cabin project or making a pledge to the Saucon Legacy Trust should contact Connar at mwconnar@aol.com or reach out to the group’s Facebook page for more information.