In the early 1850s, William and Anna Zrala Yanda moved to the United States with their oldest children from Bohemia, an area of the Austrian Empire now part of the Czech Republic. Working as a blacksmith, William found a homestead site near the Goshen Road and was later joined by a wheelwright. Together they provided essential repair services to travelers.
Around 1853, William built this one-story, 520 square-foot home with local white oak logs and large limestone foundation rocks. It had two rooms, a kitchen on the west side, and a bedroom for William, Anna, and their babies on the east side. The older children would climb into the attic space and duck into their sleeping spot, bedded down with straw and blankets for warmth. William and Anna had more children after settling and as their children grew, they married and raised their own children nearby. After William’s death in 1885, his son Frank Sr. moved into this cabin with his wife and children.
The two front doors provided access to the outside from either room, while the side door led out of the kitchen. Through the years When the St. Louis Press Brick Company moved into the area, about 1883, William and his son Frank Sr. built a saloon addition onto the front of the cabin to capitalize on the booming population. They took three foundation rocks out of the southeast corner and dug a new 10-foot by 12-foot cellar. After stabilizing the foundation with a new brick wall, they filled it with ice from a nearby pond. Patrons could get cold beer in the summers.
In 1895, the saloon moved across the road into what is now the Old Towne Tavern, built by Frank Yanda, Jr. The cabin addition became a restaurant and soda parlor managed by Frank Jr.’s sister Elizabeth. In the mid-1940s, Frank Yanda, Jr. sold the property. After changing hands again in the 1950s, the new owners used materials from the earlier addition to construct a bedroom on the west side and a modern kitchen and bathroom on the east. The owners cut a dormer into several rafters to make a bedroom in the attic space. Further disguising the log house, they covered it with aluminum siding, modernizing the home and hiding all evidence of what lay underneath.
In 1989, the property was scheduled to burn as a training exercise for the Glen Carbon Fire Department. Once the Glen Carbon Historical and Museum Commission learned what was underneath the modern home’s façade, they asked the Village Trustees for a chance to investigate. They brought in an archaeologist who determined that the cabin underneath was a good find and could be restored on its original site.
Volunteers stripped the home of its aluminum siding, additions, and dormers, revealing the original cabin. Any necessary replacement logs were made of white oak to fit the exterior and square nails purchased to match the spike and sheathing nails used in the original construction. Miraculously, three original glass-paned windows survived all the additions and changes. Grease stains and wear patterns on the floor exposed the original kitchen. Archaeologists also found a drinking well and cistern in the southwest and southeast corners of the property, respectively.
Read more about the cabin at the informational podium on the front porch. Clue - don't let the weight of the daily grind get you down!
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