Jackson venue turns log cabin into modern three-bedroom house

Former history professor Art Mattingly visited a historic log cabin in Jackson for years, until, one day, he found it had disappeared.

The pre-Civil War log house once stood near Old McKendree Chapel in Jackson. Mattingly and his students at Southeast Missouri State University relocated the cabin from Sikeston, Missouri, in the 1980s and used it as a learning tool. Though, the university later cut funding for the project and it hadn't been used by students for decades.

Mattingly still visited the cabin from time to time and mowed the grass surrounding it when he could. But, one day, he drove by and found it was gone.

He hadn't seen the dogtrot house for years, until one recent morning when he and his daughter went out for breakfast at Rusted Route Farms in Jackson.

His daughter pulled into the venue's parking lot. He looked up and saw a house.

The kitchen in a remodeled log cabin at Rusted Route Farms. The kitchen's walls were constructed from the logs of a Sikeston, Missouri, cabin built in 1856. It was later relocated to Jackson by a group of historic preservation students of Southeast Missouri State University.Monica Obradovic

"She said, 'Do you know what that is?'" Mattingly recalled. "It sure did look familiar."

The cabin had moved for a second time. Though, it differed significantly from what it looked like the last time Mattingly saw it.

A porch laced around its front. A lofted ceiling extended from its roof where the house once had an open-air center breezeway. It had modern windows and a metal roof.

The cabin was a yearslong project of Perez Home Construction and Mark Rademaker, co-owner of Rusted Route Farms wedding venue off Route W in Jackson.

Rademaker moved the cabin from its former home near Old McKendree Chapel and transformed it into a 2,300-square-foot home. He and his family lived there until he started renting the space out on VRBO and allowing couples at his venue to stay there.

The living room of Rusted Route's log cabin as seen from one of the cabin's two lofted bedrooms.Monica Obradovic

Rademaker knew little of the cabin's original history, but he did know it once belonged to SEMO.

In October of 1991, students stashed a bottle into the hearth of the cabin's fireplace. The bottle contained a piece of notebook paper with their names written on it, along with Mattingly's, and a brochure on SEMO's historic preservation program.

Rademaker found the bottle while deconstructing the cabin to move it to his property.

"My wife and I are going to write a story about our family one day and put it in the hearth," Rademaker said. "The way this thing is built, God willing, it could be here another 100 years."

Rademaker and Perez Home Construction workers reconstructed the cabin on Rusted Route's property log by log.

In the center of the house, they placed a two-story, 19th century log cabin from Burfordville. The SEMO student's cabin was split into two pens that lie on each side of the central Burfordville cabin.

Slaves constructed the original cabin in 1856. It was made out of solid Cypress timbers and measured more than 50 feet long.

It sat on private property in Sikeston when it caught the eye of a historic preservation student at SEMO in the early 1980s.

The student begged Mattingly to travel to Sikeston with him to see the cabin, Mattingly recalled. Mattingly eventually made the trip and agreed -- the cabin was too special to let fall into disrepair.

The family who owned the cabin later donated it to the university. Students and SEMO professors brought the cabin to the university's former farm in Jackson where they reconstructed it and used it as a learning tool, according to Mattingly.

SEMO later cut funding for the historic preservation program's efforts to sustain the cabin, Mattingly said. The university then donated the cabin to Old McKendree Chapel and it remained relatively untouched until Rademaker noticed it one day while on a drive.

"There was no chinking between the logs, the roof was barely on. It was deteriorating," Rademaker said.

Now, the house has a finished basement, modern amenities and three bedrooms, each with a bathroom.

Mattingly stepped into the house for the first time Friday, calling it "beautiful." He has invited his former students to come and share his wonder of their now-transformed cabin.

Former SEMO historic preservation students will congregate once again to the cabin they studied for a reunion Saturday.

"It's a museum, but it's also a place for people to live and have a good time and enjoy themselves," Mattingly said. "We can't save every building for historic preservation, but we can save some of them. The ones we pick to save need to serve a purpose to the community and future generations."