The Cumberland County Ruritan Club wants to breathe new life into an old log cabin that has seen hundreds of students meet its doors during its use as a cafeteria, computer lab, home economics room and a classroom.

A dedicated group of volunteers wants to restore the 1940s-era cabin to its original purpose as a community center.

According to “Cumberland County, Virginia And Its People,” the cabin was constructed after then-Principal C.W. McDonald thought it an “ideal situation” to construct the building near the old high school.

“The school and community people were generous with cash contributions, logs, rock, hauling, flooring and steel girding rods,” the book stated of the cabin’s origins.

Alvin Vogel was in charge of construction of the cabin,

“with work done largely by the National Youth Association boys and community volunteers. The total cost of construction was approximately $720,” according to the book.

“My father donated the logs off of his farm … The logs were cut there,” said Herbert Goodman, a Ruritan who’s involved in bringing life to the vacant building.

Goodman, along with Ruritan Barbara Gamage, spent many hours in the old cabin — now located near the elementary school at the football field — eating their lunch as teenagers.

“Stringy cheese sandwiches and bowls of beans. You remember the beans they used to make?” Gamage questioned Goodman.

The Ruritans moved the cabin in 2008 when the new high/middle school complex was built, costing $12,000.

“They had to move it or it was going to be demolished,” said Christine Godsey, president of the club. “It was right where the high school is now.”

“It was going to cost so much more to take it down to the village,” Gamage said. “We thought about putting it behind the old jail.”

“Sentimental reasons was the reasons it wasn’t destroyed,” Godsey said. “A lot of people from Cumberland County went to that school.”

According to Gamage, John Godsey and Allen Blakely dug the foundation that the log cabin sits upon now.

The new doors and windows donated by Cartersville Ruritan Fred Shumaker are just a small part of what the volunteers want to do with the building.

“We’d like to see it completed on the inside so that we can use it for community meetings and reunions,” Gamage said.

A new roof and deck have also been added, according to the Ruritans.

The remainder of the work will cost about $50,000. Plans include chinking the logs, sealing cracks, adding a bathroom, replacing the floor and securing and installing a heat pump for heating and cooling.

The Ruritans are seeking money, materials and volunteer labor from the community to make their vision a reality.

Donations can be mailed to the Cumberland Ruritan Club, P.O. Box 165, Cumberland, Va. 23040; checks can be made out to the Ruritan Log Cabin Fund. For more information, email barbmein@aol.com or call (804)-492-4803.