Log Cabin Day: Sunday, Aug 10, 2025: Volunteers Needed!

Log Cabin Day is a fun-filled, free, family-friendly festival presented by People for Palmer Park. In additional to free ice cream for the first 500 people, we celebrate history, music, dance, theater, storytelling, and art and a special children's Hat & Bonnet Parade-Contest. Children will create their own hats and bonnets from 1-3pm.

VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED from about 10 AM to 5:30 PM (2-3 hours shifts, half-day, or all day) to make this a successful event for the community. We need help with the arts and crafts, serving ice cream, set up in the beginning, cleanup at the end, helping artists set up, welcoming people into the Log Cabin, helping with games, working at the welcoming, marketing and merchandise tables, etc.

Dressing-up in vintage attire and hats from the 1800s-early 1900s is encouraged. Palmer Park is located in northwest Detroit, just west of Woodward Avenue, between McNichols and Seven Mile Roads and bordered by Merrill Plaisance.

This beloved community event, held for the past decade, transforms the grounds of the Palmer Park Log Cabin with vibrancy, fun, and enrichment with a variety of activities and presenters, including:

• The return of the children's Hat & Bonnet parade/contest. Make a creative hat at the event.

• Meet the 102nd USTA Black Civil War History Group;
• Learn about the history of the Log Cabin and Palmer Park from our Senator Thomas Palmer and his wife Mrs. Lizzie Palmer and friends;
• Enjoy free homemade ice cream from Guernsey Dairy for the first 500;
• Arts and crafts, hat-making for all ages; make a mini-log cabin!

• Readings by story tellers Brilliant Detroit
• Quilting, sewing, and other fiber art demonstrations and quilt display with the Cre8tive Collective;
• Blacksmith demonstrations by Gabriel Craig and SmithShop
• Weaving demonstrations by Michael Daitch of Coat of Many Colors Weaver;
• Square and Round dancing with the Metropolitan Detroit Square & Round Dancers
• Roots Music with vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Michelle Jahra McKinney, guitarist Ron Rutherford and bassist Jaribu Shahid.
• Storytelling & free book giveaways with Brilliant Detroit
• Food trucks
• First look at the restored historic kitchen in the Log Cabin

Built in 1885 for Senator Thomas and Lizzie Merrill Palmer by the renowned architects George D. Mason and Zachariah Rice, Palmer Park’s extraordinary Log Cabin makes history come alive. The cabin, which looks like a rustic cabin on the outside and a Victorian-era home on the inside, was used by the Palmers as a place to host parties in what then was the countryside outside of pre-auto industry Detroit. The impressive landmark with new restoration, shimmering stain-glass windows, pocketdoors, and more is an enchanting testament to historic preservation.

Sen. Palmer donated the land to Detroit in 1897 with the stipulation that it always remain a park for the enjoyment of all. The cabin lay dormant for some four decades until People for Palmer Park and the City of Detroit successfully raised funds to restore it. Log Cabin Day celebrates the rebirth of the cabin and of Palmer Park. People for Palmer Park’s sponsors for this year’s event include City of Detroit Parks & Recreation Dept., City of Detroit General Services, Guernsey Farms, and Integrity Shows.

Located between McNichols and 7 Mile Roads and west of Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Palmer Park has been a treasured nature park and recreation site for more than 135 years.

PFPP is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization committed to the revitalization of Palmer Park. The group helps to organize free classes for yoga and t’ai chi, weekly bike rides, a walking group, tennis programs for children and adults, a community garden and gardening workshops, and more. For more information, visit peopleforpalmerpark.org

Please sign up to VOLUNTEER for LOG CABIN DAY!

Also check out other Arts events in Detroit, Festivals in Detroit, Workshops in Detroit.