Creek Road
Upper Darby (Clifton Heights) PA
"The
logs were so well fitted that they needed very little chinking, and
no wind or weather could find its way between." page 8 Elin's
Amerika
Located on Creek Road in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, the Swedish log cabin is the last remaining example of a Swedish log cabin from the era of New Sweden, which makes it the oldest surviving building in Upper Darby. It stands along the bands of Darby Creek at the north end of Creek Road which begins at Dennison Avenue.
The V-notches in the fitting of the log ends at the corners, by the stone chimney and the fireplace built at the corner of the cabin show the Swedish design. English and German log cabins usually had chimneys at the end or center of the cabin. The clay and straw chinking between the logs remain in the original form.
Governor Johan Rising, who took over for Governor Johan Printz in 1654, sailed here on a ship called The Swan along with 350 new colonists. He made a treaty with the Lenape who granted him permission to settle colonists on the Upper Darby Creek area.
Two other log cabins survived in the area until recently. One called the "Upper Log Cabin" on Dennison Avenue was destroyed not too long ago. The other cabin survives at the Morton Homestead. All of these were built about the same time. Colonists who also built a grist mill on Cobbs Creek were attracted to this area because of the timber, farm land, and fur trading route that was formerly called the Minquas Path and is currently called Baltimore (Pike) Avenue.
Earlier in this century, a film maker used the site of the Lower Swedish Cabin as the setting in several of his films.
