Slabsides

Infobox nrhp
name = Slabsides (John Burroughs Cabin)
nrhp_type = nhl

---

caption = Slabsides in 2005
location = West Park, NY
nearest_city = Poughkeepsie
lat_degrees = 41
lat_minutes = 47
lat_seconds = 40
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 73
long_minutes = 58
long_seconds = 23
long_direction = W
area = 170 acres (68 ha)
built = 1895
architect = John Burroughs
architecture = Adirondack log cabin
designated= November 24, 1968cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=791&ResourceType=Building
title=Slabsides (John Burroughs Cabin)|date=2007-09-11|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service]
added = November 24, 1968cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]
visitation_num =
visitation_year =
refnum = 68000034cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]
mpsub =
governing_body = John Burroughs Association

Slabsides is the log cabin built by naturalist John Burroughs and his son on a nine-acre (3.6 ha) wooded and hilly tract in 1895 one mile east of Riverby, his home in West Park, New York. From the time of its construction to the last year of his life, he received many visitors here, ranging from Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Ford to students from Vassar College, just across the Hudson River.Breslof, Lisa; 2007; [http://research.amnh.org/burroughs/slabsides_sanct.html Slabsides] ; retrieved June 4, 2007 from amnh.org.]

Building and site

Slabsides is a simple one-story log cabin with an open living/dining/kitchen/study area and a bedroom that can be partitioned off. It is located on the west side of a hill in the wooded John Burroughs Sanctuary. There is no direct access by motor vehicle; to reach it, visitors must park on the gravel road up the hill and follow a gated logging road slightly downhill, then level, roughly 0.3 mile (500 m) to the cabin.

History

"Life has a different flavor here", Burroughs wrote of the cabin in his essay "Far and Near". "It is reduced to simpler terms; its complex equations all disappear." The name "Slabsides" came from the rough bark-covered lumber strips covering its outer walls. "I might have given it a prettier name, but not one more fit, of more in keeping with the mood that brought me thither". Much of the cabin remains as he and his son built it, including the red cedar posts holding up the porch.

After his death in 1921, the property was presented to the John Burroughs Association, which had just been formed to preserve his legacy. When nearby logging operations and proposed development threatened the property in the mid-1960s, the association purchased the properties with money raised from supporters. This has resulted in an expansion of the property into the 170-acre (68 ha) John Burroughs Sanctuary. The cabin was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1968,,citation|title=PDFlink| [http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/68000035.pdf National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Slabsides, John Burroughs Study] |305 KB|author=Richard Greenwood|date=February, 1976|publisher=National Park Service, (Note misfiled under REFNUM for Riverby rather than REFNUM for Slabsides) and PDFlink| [http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Photos/68000035.pdf Accompanying 3 photos, exterior and interior, from 1975 and undated.] |618 KB] joining Riverby and Woodchuck Lodge as Burroughs-associated properties carrying that designation.

Access

To reach the cabin, visitors must park at the base of the road to it on Burroughs Drive and walk up a half-mile (800 m). The cabin itself, furnished exactly as it was when Burroughs left it, is only open to visitors twice a year, from noon to 4:30 p.m. on the third Saturday in May and the first one in October. Hiking trails have been constructed for visitors to enjoy for themselves the woods that inspired Burroughs. The sanctuary is open year-round.

ee also

*Riverby
*Woodchuck Lodge

References

External links

* [http://research.amnh.org/burroughs/slabsides_sanct.html John Burroughs Association: Slabsides]