Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Ohio's Log Buildings

In 2011, after reading Donald Hutslar's book, The Architecture of Migration: Log Construction in the Ohio Country, 1750–1850, I began compiling information about my state's log buildings. Hutslar, in his introduction to The Architecture of Migration, lamented that "only a small amount of serious survey work [had] been accomplished" before 1986 (Hutslar published his treatise that year). I resigned to finish this "serious survey work" and create something hitherto unknown — an exhaustive list of Ohio's historic log buildings. For years, I stored the information in scattered folders, a .kml file, and a halfheartedly-maintained ArcGIS map. (Such chaos would have me jettisoned from any office.) Recently, I discovered Google Fusion Tables, which, it seems, is precisely what I've long sought — a way of collecting mountains of information, and displaying it in the form of a map.

For organization's sake (and to prevent the map from crashing viewers' computers), I've broken my (crude) database into 86 pages. To view a list of log buildings in a particular county, click that county's name. To view a map of log structures in that county, click the tab labeled "Map of Location." Blue circles denote extant log buildings; red circles, destroyed log buildings; green circles, extant buildings that may be log; yellow circles, demolished buildings that may have been log; and question marks, buildings whose locations I've yet to discover.

AdamsAllen; AshlandAshtabulaAthens; Auglaize; Belmont; Brown; ButlerCarroll; Champaign; Clark; ClermontClinton; Columbiana; Coshocton; Crawford; Cuyahoga; DarkeDefiance; Delaware; Erie; Fairfield; Fayette; Franklin; FultonGallia; Greene; Guernsey; Hamilton; Hancock; Hardin; HarrisonHenry; Highland; HockingHolmes; Huron; Jackson; Jefferson; KnoxLawrence; Licking; LoganLorainLucas; Madison; MahoningMarionMedina; Meigs; MercerMiami; Monroe; Montgomery; MorganMorrow; Muskingum; NobleOttawaPaulding; PerryPickawayPike; Portage; PreblePutnam; RichlandRoss; Scioto; Seneca; Shelby; Stark; SummitTrumbullTuscarawas; UnionVan Wert; VintonWarren; Washington; WayneWilliamsWoodWyandot.

This file includes supplementary information. (Alas, Google's program permits no footnote-writing.) For those interested, here's a tabulation of buildings included in the database.

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