APPOMATTOX, Va. (AP) - On a blustery Monday afternoon, two construction workers nailed cedar planks to the roof of a small cabin less than a mile from the village at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.
The planks are a small piece in an extensive process to rehabilitate a house known for its connection to the “Elvis Presley” of the mid-1800s: Joel Walker Sweeney. The project started recently with roofing work; park officials hope to have the restoration completed by mid-April.
Sweeney, a native to what is now Appomattox County, was said to have popularized the modern five-string banjo after learning to play from African-Americans in the area.
The park named the house the Charles Sweeney cabin, after Joel Sweeney’s cousin. Family lore suggests Joel Sweeney often would stay at the cabin with his cousin when he returned from his tours as a minstrel in the 1850s.
The Appomattox 1865 Foundation, also known as the friends group of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, raised $25,000 in a little less than a year to go toward revitalizing the cabin, located on Virginia 24 about a half-mile northwest of the Appomattox Court House village.
For David Wooldridge, Appomattox Court House museum technician, restoring the cabin and telling the story of Joel Sweeney is a dream come true. He fell in love with Sweeney’s story when he first started working at the park in the mid-1990s because it is “quintessentially American,” with different people and cultures coming together.
“We happen to be sitting on top of what some folks call ground zero for (the original story) of the banjo. He was the Elvis Presley of the 1840s,” Wooldridge said.
Sweeney was a white, working-class twenty-something who took an instrument most folks had not heard before - and if they had, it likely was played by black musicians - to the national stage, he said.
The cabin was added into the national park in the 1950s. Earlier repairs involved replacing a few pieces of wooden siding and shingles on the roof.
John Spangler, Appomattox Court House chief of facilities, said a few repairs were made before the 150th anniversary of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in April 2015.
Across the road from the cabin is the Sweeney orchard, where sources say Lee waited for a message from Grant before the surrender.
The cabin was built in the 1830s and is an example of a “post and beam hall-type house” that was common in rural Virginia. The one-story structure featured a wood-shingled gable roof and whitewashed brick stack chimney.
“It’s been on my list since I started here (about two years ago). This is one of those buildings that its history is essential to us, but since it’s not in the park landscape, it’s challenging to get funding for it,” Park Superintendent Robin Snyder said.
The cabin needs exterior work, including re-glazing the windows, washing and re-coating the chimney, repairing the front door sill and replacing siding.
The project also includes building exhibits inside the cabin depicting Sweeney’s life and a study to look at parking and walking access for visitors, which together is estimated to cost about $60,000. Currently, if visitors want to see the cabin, they have to park at a small gravel area just over the Appomattox River and walk about a quarter mile through a field so they don’t have to walk in the road. Foundation officials said they will continue to raise funds for those items.
One of the first known repairs of the cabin was in the late 1980s, according to Spangler.
Workers with Lynchburg Roofing were on top of the cabin Monday nailing cedar shingles, which are historically accurate for the structure. After the roof, a different construction company will work to replace some of the clapboard siding and areas “hammered by carpenter bees,” Spangler said.
“Since we are doing a restoration, the concept is to go at it with a scalpel as opposed to the ax,” Spangler said.
Snyder said the park does have some internal funds that could be used to restore the interior of the cabin.
Because federal law prevents national parks from fundraising or marketing themselves, the foundation - a nonprofit, all-volunteer group - does the fundraising for projects at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.
The park hopes to have the cabin open during its annual Sweeney Concert Series, which will be moved from the summer to this fall. The series started in 2013.
“You can’t just come to the Charles Sweeney cabin without hearing some banjo music. It’s very special because of its connection. When you start hearing these chords reverberate off the walls, it’s a spooky feeling,” Wooldridge said.
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Information from: The News & Advance, https://www.newsadvance.com/
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