Ed Batten is quite the intelligent individual, and around 10 years or so ago he visited Sandy Ridge with the Pioneer president at the time and did some investigating. This would most likely be 2/25/2013. He sent this to me on 2/27/2013. The surveyor drawing he mentions is the one in post 10 from Ed Campbell.
“As we discovered on Monday, The outside dimensions to the foundations of the original Cabin (kitchen) shed was 8’8” by 25’6”. I rounded up to 9’ by 26’, so that makes the kitchen approximately 234 square feet. Looking at the picture, I presume that the back shed was approximately one half of the width of the Cabin. Per my math that makes the main Cabin about 468 square foot. Adding the second floor into that, it makes the entire Cabin (Kitchen, first and second floors) approximately 1170 square foot.
Sometime when it’s warmer, I would like to measure all of the foundations (is “piers” a good way to address them), get the total number of piers, measure width/length of each and the distance between each. As you know, “the devil is always in the details”!
I count 26 faces in the picture of the 1947 Hunting Party. Do the math, and that makes 45 Square Foot per hunter.
I’ve taken a few good looks at the pictures of the Cabin after they added the wings/additions to the sides. Maybe it’s just me, but the pitch of the roofs, and the age/type of the siding look similar, if not identical. While we can probably never confirm it, but I think that the Club bought the “Pickers House”, cut it in half, moved it from north of Hilly’s house, to our Cabin, and attached it to the main Cabin. Dad always said that we purchased a “garage“ type building and attached it to the sides.”
Up front, let me preface that all I said above, and what will follow is conjecture based on what we measured, “eyeball” measurements made from viewing the pictures, and the approximate dimensions indicated on the surveyors drawing. In short, I am not claiming any degree of absolute accuracy.
Per the above, I make the approximate dimensions of the main (Pioneer Cabin) building (without the back shed/kitchen) to be 18’ by 26’. Looking at the pictures, I make the width of the two “wing” additions to be approximately the same width as the main building (18’). Looking again at the pictures, I think that the length of each addition could be the same, but is probably a bit shorter than the full length (26’) of the main Cabin.
Looking at the Surveyors drawing, the approximate dimensions, of what I presume to be the Joe Johnson house, is 18’ by 32’. Likewise, the “Pickers House is listed as being 22’ by 125’.
Here’s the first rub..I find the 125’ estimated length of the “Pickers House” to be a bit much. For comparison, that’s 45’ foot longer than the Cabin we currently occupy at “Big Oaks” (30’ by 80’). I cannot think of any building at Friendship (or any other Bog) that was that long except for the Packing House. And, the Packing Houses were not intended for use by once a year itinerant pickers. Of course it could have been a multi use building to include equipment, pickers “combs”, etc. Still, 2750 (22’ by 125’) is a lot of square foot! (It would be interesting to know if the “Pickers House” had a floor or was simply sand. I presume that the Joe Johnson house had a floor.)
I have shifted my position from the earlier (above) e-mail, and presume the the building that was used to create the Pioneer Clubhouse additions/wings to be the “Joe Johnson” house. The 18’ is closer to what I’m guessing the width of our main Cabin (former Charles Edward Holloway house) to be. Plus, the length of 32’, if cut in half would make the additions/wings to be a 16’ long. That’s a bit short by what my eyeball measurements make me want to think, but I’m somewhat comforted that the surveyor admits his measurements are approximate.
Admittedly, I am guessing, but I’d make the dimension of each addition/wing to be approximately 18’ by 22’ or 18’ by 24’ (and for now I’m leaning towards the 18’ by 24’ guesstimate).
