Masonry Magazine October 1997 Page. 43
Dig This...
by Douglas Page
In some parts of the world 'tabby' is a cat, a cloth or a nosey spinster. But if you poke around in old Georgia dirt in the right place you'll find what remains of an historic kind of tabby a durable concrete made from lime, sand and oyster shell used for construction of American homes on the Atlantic shore in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The practice of tabby construction lasted until the introduction of Portland cement in the late 19th century. Many fine tabby homes survive today, but since the art of tabby construction has been largely lost, these homes exist in various stages of neglect and decay.
Repair attempts on some of the structures have been attempted from time to time, but if the right recipe isn't followed the results can leave the structure unstable. Lauren Sickels Taves, a veteran preservationist and one of the world's foremost tabby experts, believes she has the correct tabby formula. She is testing her lab-fashioned method beginning this summer when restoration of a two hundred year old tabby structure begins on Cumberland Island, the southern-most of Georgia's scenic barrier islands. Volunteers are invited to join her.
This work will help bolster not only the historic Cumberland Island ruins, but also other surviving tabby buildings. Repairs to tabby dwellings using the wrong ingredients - such as blends of tar, asphalt or Portland cement - have been tried and don't work. The original buildings aren't surviving with these incompatible, incomplete and often incompetent repairs.
Under the auspices of the non-profit environmental Earth-Corps, several 10-day volunteer teams will convene this summer, and the next several summers, on the former plantation of Revolutionary War general Nathaniel Greene, to help restore the original Greene tabby home, occupied by the Greene family during construction of the adjacent Dungeness mansion. Dungeness, a gift to Gen. Greene from the people of Georgia following the revolution, stood four stories high, with four
Volunteers Sought to Restore Historic 'Tabby' Structure
Thirteen Earthwatch volunteers spent four weeks this summer working with Park Service personnel to restore the historic Tabby House on Cumberland Island, GA. Collaboration between Earthwatch and the Park Service allowed the $100,000 project to be completed for only $11,000.