The Drake Log Cabin is an 18' x 22' rectangular-shaped, one-room log cabin. Its hand-hewn shaped logs alternate with layers of mud mortar. A split-shingle-covered, gable roof with an interior end stone chimney tops the IH story cabin. The gable ends have board and batten siding and small 4/4 windows. A 4/4 window also appears on the 2-bay facade. Original hardware on the rough-sawn vertical board door Includes iron strap hinges. The appearance of the rear of the cabin is identical to the facade.
A flagstone walk leads to the entranceway. An upturned horseshoe nailed above the doorway is the single decorative feature on this simple folk structure. The cabin has recently been restored and exhibits excellent integrity. It is located in an area of Apollo zoned R-l, Residential, and i t is presently utilized as a museum. Restoration was accomplished in 1971. he Drake Log Cabin is significant in the present built environment and the historical development of Apollo Borough.
Early local histories and traditions set its date between 1816, when lots were laid out in Warren as Apollo was known then, and 1848 a date set on a deed of 1882 as the original purchase of the lot by a George Hunter, reported in a 1916 history as builder of the cabin. Nonwithstanding whether i t dates from 1816 or 1848, it is presently the oldest structure in Apollo today, because all buildings from Apollo's earliest period of development have since been lost.
The Drake Log Cabin exemplifies an early form of folk construction in the mid-Atlantic region. This one-room type dwelling developed into the New England Colonial style after it was brought to the New World by British settlers in the 1600s. Westward-moving pioneers utilized this design as they migrated westward through Pennsylvania in the late 18th and early-to-mid 19th centuries. The Drake Log Cabin is the finest example of this dwelling type remaining in Armstrong County, and the only one in Apollo Borough.Documentary evidence verifying the construction date of the original log cabin settlement in Apollo Borough is primarily contained in a newspaper article written by T. J. Henry, M.D., in 1916. According to Henry, the construction of the first four cabins built in Apollo begun in 1810 and completed by 1817. A squatter's cabin previously existed at this site bringing the original settlement to five cabins.
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