In April 1995, Nedd and Natalie Neddersen, the then-new owners of the Eagle Harbor Inn in Ephraim, offered the dismantled Peter Knutson cabin (on Eagle Harbor Inn property) to the Ephraim Historical Foundation.  Contractors set to work, building the Svalhus from the logs from the Knutson cabin.  Wire nails in the logs indicate that the cabin did not predate 1890, but it is believed the cabin was built around the turn of the century. 

The cabin had once housed Doris Heise Miller's first "Cabin Craft" shop.  Doris rented the cabin from Peter Knutson in 1933 for $85.00.  It had no electricity or running water.  Doris used a kerosene stove to cook, kept food cold in a crockery jar that she kept in a stream running through the property, and she bathed in the bay. 

Jack Optiz, a expert in reconstructing log buildings who has done work at Old World Wisconsin, says the original building was moved from another site to another location because the logs have Roman numerals indicating placement.

Svalhus in Norwegian means "cool house" or "hallway'.  A sval is an overhang that served as a buffer to cold north winds  The reconstructed Svalhus was built adjacent to the Anderson Barn in 1996.  The dimensions of the cabin are 20 feet by 16 feet with a four foot overhang on the second story.