Historical Significance:

The DAR Buford Chapter House, generally known as the cabin in Ritter Park, is a familiar local landmark. The land on which it sits was part of the Savage Land Grant given by Virginia in 1775 to soldiers who served under George Washington in the French and Indian War.  Documents from the early 1800's showed improvements had been made to the land including a dwelling, possibly from the Revolutionary War era, making it one of the oldest in this part of the Ohio River Valley.  Local residents remembered when the cabin was a caretaker's home on the Scales-Beuhring plantation.  The earliest picture of it in 1899 shows a story-and-a-half cabin to which a wrap-around porch was later added.  When Mr. C.L. Ritter acquired it, he gave the land to the city of Huntington for a park; Ritter Park became a U.S. Historic District in 1990.  City officials permitted Buford to use the cabin as their Chapter House but after a few years, the cabin's condition was beyond repaid.  A new cabin was commissioned by Buford in 1920 modeled after the old one.  What materials could be salvaged from it were used to build its replacement on the same footprint.  Construction was completed in 1922 and Buford has maintained the cabin ever since as its Chapter House.

Historic Marker:

• Marker Organization: Buford Chapter, NSDAR
• Marker Text: This Copper Birch tree planted in memory of George Washington by Buford Chapter DAR Feb. 22, 1932.