Discovery Park of America will begin their $500,000 project

OBION COUNTY, Tenn. (KFVS) - Discovery Park of America announced on Saturday, August 14, that they will begin a project to restore dozen of structures in the museum and heritage park.

Robert E. and Jenny D. Kirkland foundation are funding the project that will cost near $500,000.

According to the Discovery Park, the project is expected to take up a year to complete.

At Discovery Park, the settlement will be on the North Lake and will include farmhouses, a corn crib, tool barn, smokehouse, hog barn, loom house, doctor’s cabin, livestock barn and woodshed.

All the buildings were donated to Discovery Park by families from around the region and moved to the settlement before the park opened in 2013.

Leatherwood incorporated was chosen to handle the park cabin conservation.

According to the Discovery Park, they developed a unique method of analyzing and addressing the needs of historic structures using modern technology.

“We felt Leatherwood’s understanding of historic processes and architecture and their experience restoring similar structures made them an obvious choice for this project and their extensive resume includes numerous presidential homes, national landmarks and monuments, private house museums as well as a long list of private historic residences,” said Jennifer Wildes, senior director of exhibits for Discovery Park.

The Leatherwood’s team will replace select logs that have decayed and patch damaged areas that can get worse over time and also stabilize cabins that have shifted and waterproof all structures.

All the issues will be addressed using traditional practices including no screws, nails or dowels in the notches.

“This is a wonderful collection of original cabins and we’re taking great care to make certain the Settlement is here for Discovery Park’s guests to enjoy and learn from decades into the future,” said Vic Hood, founder of Leatherwood incorporated.

For more information about Discovery Park of America visit the park website.