Mount Rainier's Architecture...

We are often as impressed with the human contributions, as well as Mother Nature's, when visiting our National Parks. I appreciated Mount Rainier's and had to share it.

From entrance arches and rock bridges to curving roads and rustic buildings, Mount Rainier National Park (our Nation's 5th) was designed with the visitor experience in mind. The park’s historic buildings and roads represent the development of a style of architecture, called National Park Service Rustic (1916-1942), that has shaped the design of parks throughout the country.

"This little noticed movement in American architecture was a natural outgrowth of a new romanticism about nature, about our country's western frontiers . . . The conservation ethic slowly took hold in this atmosphere of romanticism. Part of this ethic fostered the development of a unique architectural style. Perhaps for the first time in the history of American architecture, a building became an accessory to nature. Early pioneer and regional building techniques were revived because it was thought that a structure employing native materials blended best with the environment. No other single government agency has to date been responsible for such a revolutionary break in architectural form."

The history of Mount Rainier National Park starts here in Longmire. Longmire didn’t start out as part of a national park. James Longmire built the first buildings here on land he patented as a mining claim. He dreamed of building a health resort for vacationers to enjoy the mineral springs and to serve as a base for exploring Mount Rainier. As James built a road, hotel, and other buildings and allowing greater access to the area, people began to see the potential in the beautiful slopes of Mount Rainier. They lobbied Congress for years to make it a national park and succeeded in 1899. Its first lodge was the National Park Inn. Throughout the 1920s, the Longmire area continued to be developed, with renovation and construction projects. Through buyouts and a fire, what was the original Inn's annex became the current National Park Inn.

The new park management needed buildings, starting with an office then houses, a kitchen and various others. Two of these early buildings can still be seen; the library (1910) and the museum (1916). They’re simple, wooden buildings that almost blend in under the trees.

As the park staff grew, so did the need for office space. In designing the new Administration building in the 1920s, National Park Service architects in San Francisco decided to make a building that looks like it should be here; a rustic building constructed with local stone and wood, echoing the surrounding forests and mountains. As managers sketched out a plan for the park, this became the blueprint for all buildings and structures. Eventually, these ideas became the style know as “NPS Rustic” and copied in many other National Park Service sites.

The Administration Building summarized the maturing philosophy of non-intrusive architecture in a forested setting. The lower walls, veneered with native stone, rose irregularly out of the earth. The large logs used in the roof and porch were proportional to the surrounding conifer forest. Shrub screening along the base of the walls established yet another connection between the building and the forest. Completed, the building was a handsome structure with strong visual ties to its environment.

How about this gas station's parkitecture?

Continuing our explore of the Longmire Historic District, we crossed the bridge to see the Community Building.

To accommodate the growing number of visitors arriving by automobile, NPS undertook the construction of the Longmire Public Auto-Camp from 1924-27. The focus and crowning achievement of the Camp was the Community Building (originally Community House), completed in 1927. It was intended to serve as the social activity center at Longmire for both visitors and NPS employees.

Although the Longmire Public Auto-Camp was closed in the 1970s, the Community Building continues to serve as the principal site for meetings, lectures, and training classes in Mt. Rainier National Park. Considered an outstanding example of rustic park architecture, it is a contributing structure in the Longmire Historic District.

The true STAR, however, was up the hill in Paradise, whose beauty has drawn people to the slopes of Mount Rainier for millennia. Paradise’s wildflower meadows also became a destination for some of the first tourists to the mountain. Before the creation of Mount Rainier National Park, people recognized a need for accommodations at Paradise. What began as just tent camps evolved.

Construction of the Paradise Inn began the summer of 1916. Workers received permission to harvest dead Alaska yellow cedars a few miles down the road. A wildfire, almost twenty years before, had killed the trees but left them standing. Construction finished the following summer costing $91,000.

Opening on July 1, 1917, the Inn had thirty-seven guest rooms and a dining room that could accommodate 400. Distinctive furnishing made by Hans Fraehnke enhanced the lobby, including woodwork of the registration desk, two massive cedar tables and chairs, a mail drop stump, and cases for the 14 foot tall clock and the piano.

Think of all the fun postcards and letters home that have been put in this mail drop stump. Wow. What a spectacular place in a spectacular setting.

Since 1922, many Mount Rainier climbers have begun their summit attempts at the threshold of this building. Architecturally speaking, the building's stone and timber construction is typical of the alpine rustic architecture of the 1920s and 1930s, the gambrel roof is unusual.

From the 1920s to the early 2000s, park concessioners operating out of the Guide House led guided climbs up the mountain. Today the building houses the park's Climbing Information Center. In this 1927 photograph, professional guides with ropes and ice axes line up in front of the Guide House, ready to lead the way (fun for anyone but me. The mountain did not call).

Admiring Mount Rainier's beauty and exceptional architecture, one forgets that it is an active volcano... at least until one sees this directional road sign. Yikes.

"Of all the fire mountains which like beacons,

once blazed along the Pacific Coast,

Mount Rainier is the noblest.”

— John Muir

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HAERR TRIPPIN'

Mount Rainier's Architecture...

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