Hickory Knob State Resort Park, Guillebeau House: 10 '15

This historical cabin is located directly across the street from the cabin where Bruce and I are staying.  It has a interesting history.

Late in the 1700's the French Huguenots came to this area looking not for gold, but for the golden opportunity of a new world free from religious persecution.  They settled within the boundaries of the Old 96 District McCormick County, living and worshiping in a section named after their homeland in France, New Bordeaux.

In the late 1770's the Guillebeau House was built by Andre Guillebeau and his wife in the Mt. Carmel area of McCormick County.  Ancestors of Andre Guillebeau lived in the house for many years.  In the 1930's the house was revived when the remaining Guillebeau descendants decided to hold the Hueguenot reunions there.  These reunions were held for the next several years.

After the Guillebeau family sold the property, Mrs Ina Guillebeau Savage, a descendant of the builder purchased the Guillebeau House in order to preserve it, and donated it to Hickory Knob State Resort Park.    The Guillebeau House is on the National Registry of Historical Places, and has been recognized as one of the top five cabins in America.

The Guillebeau House was rented during our visit,( as it often is)  so we were not able to go inside.  That is too bad; we would have loved to have seen the inside.  Even though the Guillebeau House has been updated with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a modern kitchen, a gas log fireplace, screened in porch, and central heat and AC,  it still contains many antiques of the era.  I bet one can feel a real sense of the past within its walls. One certainly can when looking at it from the exterior .