{"nrhp_refnum":"98000319","name":"Blakeslee Log Cabin","other_names":["Whalen House","DeSorbes Family House","Atb-281-4"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"441 Seven Hills Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Ashtabula","county":"Ashtabula County","state":"OH","lat":41.844789021000054,"lon":-80.76914301999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1998-04-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-and-one-half-story log house at 441 Seven Hills Road in Ashtabula, Ohio, built around 1810 for the Blakeslee family, early settlers of the Western Reserve. It sits on its original site and is now a museum.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is a rare surviving rectangular double-room log house in Ashtabula County, where nearly all comparable log houses have been lost. It has never been enlarged and retains about 90 percent of its original logs in the walls and rafters, along with original roof boards and partition. Its rural setting helps convey its character as an early nineteenth-century pioneer home.","narrative":"Built around 1810, this log house in Ashtabula, Ohio, is a rectangular double-room cabin measuring 21 by 28 feet, one and one-half stories tall, with a gabled roof and half-dovetail corner notching. Its walls are split logs 16 to 18 inches thick, hand-hewn smooth on the interior. It was home to John Blakeslee, whose family was among the first to settle in the area, and later to the Whalen and DeSorbes families, before the county historical society bought it in 1989 and opened it as a museum. The cabin is considered important because almost all of its log contemporaries in this part of the Western Reserve have disappeared. It was never enlarged, and about 90 percent of the original logs in the walls and rafters survive, along with the original roof boards, interior partition, and stone foundation wall. Its wooded, rural setting, with a spring and springhouse, reinforces its pioneer character.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1810","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"No Style - Vernacular","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Current function is museum; owned by the county historical society. Changes include a wooden porch floor (1991), replaced sill logs, and removal of vertical siding added around 1965-1970.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:07.292232-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/98000319.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98000319/d339c865cc-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98000319/d339c865cc-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blakeslee_Log_Cabin.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blakeslee_Log_Cabin.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71986657","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137597631"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/ashtabula-county/blakeslee-log-cabin-98000319/"}