EVENTS

Log Cabin Day
Sunday, June 27, 2021 | 1-5pm

NOTE: This year's Log Cabin Day festivities will be held outdoors next to the log cabin. Masks and social distancing are encouraged. 

For 2021...
Free family fun, musical theater, history, and ice cream!
  • Who built and lived in this log cabin in 1885?
  • Free ice cream to first 500
  • Dream Arts Company  presents excerpts from Peter Pan
  • 102nd US CT/Black Civil War history group
  • Detroit Mounted Police
  • The Wheelmen on penny farthings
  • Spinning and weaving demos
  • Barbara M. Allen, sixth-generation granddaughter of Sojourner Truth, will do readings from her children's book on Sojourner Truth and talk about her history
  • Griot's of Cloth Quilts and Historic Gee's Bend Alabama Quilts 
  • Arts and crafts activities and make a mini log cabin
  • Flamingo to Go will be there with food and treats
  • Dress up in 1880 to 1920s attire and vintage hats
  • And more surprises!

But on a typical year...
People for Palmer Park (PFPP) and the City of Detroit open Palmer Park’s historic 1800s Log Cabin each year for a rare public tour of the only authentic log cabin in Detroit. The public is introduced to some of the 'modern' amenities of the 1800s: Mrs. Palmer's treasured American Jewel stove, an indoor toilette, and Victorian-style pocket doors, as well as the recently restored original stained-glass windows and Dutch front door! 

Visitors at this fun-filled free family event are welcomed throughout the cabin by historians and actors in costume as well as treated to an old-fashioned ice cream social, live music with young fiddlers, traditional blacksmith demos, hat-making with a hat and bonnet parade/contest, Civil War camp with the 102nd USCT Black History group, African American quilters, locally-made refreshments, and much more. It has become an annual summer event that reconnects people of all ages to early Detroit memories and history, and aspirations for Detroit’s continued revival.

The cabin is rustically covered on the exterior with trees harvested from the surrounding forest, with a Victorian-style interior designed by architects George Mason (who designed Masonic Temple) and Zachariah Rice (the two also designed Mackinac Island’s Grand Hotel, the Detroit Yacht Club and many other notable buildings).

Built in 1885 by Senator Thomas Palmer and his wife Lizzie as their summer retreat, the cabin was once filled with antiques and visitors who would travel north on Woodward in horse-drawn carts. By 1897 Palmer had donated the cabin and majority of the land surrounding it which would come to be known as Palmer Park.

Log Cabin Day 2019 highlights: 
  • Free family fun for all ages
  • Guided Tours of the Log Cabin 
  • Free Guernsey Ice Cream for first 500
  • Mad Hatter & Bonnet making and parade with prizes 
  • Live Music with Saline Fiddlers Philharmonic
  • Face Painting
  • Beer & Wine Garden
  • Food Truck and Vendors
  • 102nd USCT Black Civil War History Group
  • Detroit Mounted Police
  • Square & Round Dancing with Dudes & Dolls Dance Club
  • African American Quilts & Detroit Unity Temple Quilters
  • Historic Gee's Bend Alabama Quilt Display
  • Weaving Demos
  • Costumes and actors

PFPP is a nonprofit 501 (C)(3) organization committed to the revitalization of Palmer Park. The group makes possible free classes for yoga and t’ai chi, weekly bike rides, a walking group, tennis programs for children and adults, a community garden and gardening workshops... and more. 

Palmer Park is an urban oasis of 296 acres of lawns and historic woodlands, a Splash Park and playscape, tennis courts, hiking and biking trails, Lake Frances, and some of the most valuable and diverse ecosystems in the state. Located between 6 and 7 Mile Roads and west of Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Palmer Park has been a treasured nature park and recreation site for more than 120 years. 

Thank you to our 2019 sponsors: City of Detroit Recreation Dept., City of Detroit General Services, Motor City Brew Works, and Guernsey Dairy. 

RELATED LINKS
Check out this great segment from WDIV's "Live in the D" on the Palmer Park Log Cabin
(air date: 6/21/16)
MORE EVENTS:


LOG CABIN DAY


WINTERFEST


HARVEST FESTIVAL


PALMER PARK ART FAIR