The Navarre Cabin — the society's oldest possession

Built about 1820 — the society's from 1895

The museum life: Pierre Navarre's log cabin and trading post of about 1820, the oldest structure in the community, became a museum object before the museum had a building: in May 1895 the developers of Navarre Place, building houses on the settler's old land, donated the cabin to the newly refounded Northern Indiana Historical Society. It is the society's oldest documented possession, held through all the museum's homes — moved in 1904 to Leeper Park, again in 1916, again in 1954, its travels told in full in the Architecture record — and used in its park years for the museum's Cabin Days, the annual October school program that brought the county's children through a pioneer's door.

The homecoming: In 2024 the cabin was moved once more, from Leeper Park to The History Museum's campus on West Washington Street — its fourth move, and its first into the keeping of the museum building itself. The museum's account states that the cabin "will be the main structure of a homestead that is currently being planned," with programs for the public and school students following. After two centuries and four removals, the county's first settler's house stands in the museum's yard, a short walk from the mansion of the plow king whose works made the city the cabin's builders could not have imagined.

Sources:

1. The Architecture record of this history — the cabin's building about 1820, its donation to the society in May 1895, its moves of 1904, 1916 and 1954, and the Cabin Days program.
2. The History Museum, "About the Museum" (historymuseumsb.org) — the cabin built about 1820, Pierre Navarre the county's first pioneer settler, the relocation to the museum's campus, and the planned homestead.
3. Visit South Bend Mishawaka — the Navarre Cabin relocated to The History Museum campus in 2024.