the national park architecture sourcebook

Harvey H. Kaiser

Princeton Architectural Press

New York

The National Park Architecture Sourcebook

Published byPrinceton Architectural Press37 East Seventh StreetNew York, New York 10003

For a free catalog of books, call 1.800.722.6657.Visit our web site at www.papress.com.

© 2008 Princeton Architectural PressAll rights reservedPrinted and bound in China11 10 09 08 4 3 2 1 First edition

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher, except in the context of reviews.

Every reasonable attempt has been made to identify owners of copyright. Errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions.

Editor: Lauren Nelson PackardDesigner: Jan Haux

Special thanks to: Nettie Aljian, Sara Bader, Dorothy Ball, Nicola Bednarek, Janet Behning, Becca Casbon, Penny (Yuen Pik) Chu, Russell Fernandez, Pete Fitzpatrick, Wendy Fuller, Clare Jacobson, Nancy Eklund Later, Linda Lee, Laurie Manfra, Katharine Myers, Jennifer Thompson, Paul Wagner, Joseph Weston, and Deb Wood of Princeton Architectural Press —Kevin C. Lippert, publisher

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataKaiser, Harvey H., 1936- The National Park architecture sourcebook / Harvey H. Kaiser. —1st ed. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-56898-742-2 (alk. paper) 1. Architecture—United States—Guidebooks. 2. Historic buildings—United States—Guidebooks. 3. National parks and reserves—United States—Guidebooks. I. Title. NA705.K35 2008 725.70973—dc22 2007044230

List of Parks

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Far West and Pacific

Alaska

California

Hawaii

Oregon

Washington

Southwest

Arizona

Nevada

New Mexico

Texas

Utah

Rockies and Plains

Colorado

Idaho

Kansas

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Oklahoma

North Dakota

South Dakota

Wyoming

Midwest

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Michigan

Minnesota

Ohio

Wisconsin

Table of Contents

6

8

10

15

16

21

57

64

74

87

88

117

120

140

153

165

166

183

186

199

211

220

225

229

236

243

265

266

269

275

278

290

293

307

South

Alabama

Arkansas

Florida

Georgia

Kentucky

Louisiana

Mississippi

North Carolina

South Carolina

Tennessee

Virginia

West Virginia

Mid-Atlantic

District of Columbia

Maryland

New Jersey

New York

Pennsylvania

New England

Connecticut

Maine

Massachusetts

New Hampshire

Rhode Island

Vermont

313

314

319

327

344

354

361

368

376

386

392

401

429

433

434

455

473

479

516

543

544

547

551

591

594

597

Alabama Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site Tuskegee Institute National Historic SiteAlaska Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park Sitka National Historical ParkArizona Casa Grande Ruins National Monument Chiricahua National Monument Fort Bowie National Historic Site Grand Canyon National Park Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site Montezuma Castle National Monument Petrified Forest National Park Pipe Spring National Monument Tumacácori National Historical Park Tuzigoot National Monument Wupatki National MonumentArkansas Fort Smith National Historic Site Hot Springs National Park Pea Ridge National Military ParkCalifornia Cabrillo National Monument Death Valley National Park Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site Fort Point National Historic Site Golden Gate National Recreation Area John Muir National Historic Site Lassen Volcanic National Park Manzanar National Historic Site Point Reyes National Seashore San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Yosemite National ParkColorado Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site Dinosaur National Monument Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument Hovenweep National Monument Mesa Verde National Park Rocky Mountain National ParkConnecticut Weir Farm National Historic SiteDistrict of Columbia Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site Frederick Douglass National Historic Site Lincoln Memorial Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site National Mall Rock Creek Park Sewall-Belmont House National Historic Site Thomas Jefferson Memorial Washington Monument White House (President’s Park)Florida Biscayne National Park Castillo de San Marcos National Monument Dry Tortugas National Park Fort Caroline National Memorial Fort Matanzas National Monument Gulf Islands National Seashore Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve

Georgia Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park Fort Pulaski National Monument Jimmy Carter National Historic Site Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic SiteHawaii Kalaupapa National Historical Park Pu’uhonua o Hònaunau National Historical Park USS Arizona MemorialIdaho Nez Perce National Historical Park Illinois Lincoln Home National Historic SiteIndiana George Rogers Clark National Historical Park Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Lincoln Boyhood National MemorialIowa Herbert Hoover National Historic SiteKansas Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site Fort Larned National Historic Site Fort Scott National Historic Site Nicodemus National Historic Site Tallgrass Prairie National PreserveKentucky Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Mammoth Cave National ParkLouisiana Cane River Creole National Historical Park Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and PreserveMaine Acadia National ParkMaryland Antietam National Battlefield Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Clara Barton National Historic Site Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine Fort Washington Park Hampton National Historic Site Thomas Stone National Historic SiteMassachusetts Adams National Historical Park Boston African American National Historic Site Boston National Historical Park Cape Cod National Seashore Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site Longfellow National Historic Site Lowell National Historical Park Minute Man National Historical Park New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park Salem Maritime National Historic Site Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site Springfield Armory National Historic SiteMichigan Father Marquette National Memorial Isle Royale National Park Keweenaw National Historical Park Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

List of Parks

Minnesota Grand Portage National MonumentMississippi Gulf Islands National Seashore Natchez National Historical Park Vicksburg National Military ParkMissouri George Washington Carver National Monument Harry S. Truman National Historic Site Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site Wilson’s Creek National BattlefieldMontana Glacier National Park Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic SiteNebraska Homestead National Monument of America Scotts Bluff National MonumentNevada Lake Mead National Recreation AreaNew Hampshire Saint-Gaudens National Historic SiteNew Jersey Edison National Historic Site Morristown National Historical ParkNew Mexico Aztec Ruins National Monument Bandelier National Monument Chaco Culture National Historical Park Fort Union National Monument National Park Service Region III Headquarters Building Pecos National Historical Park Salinas Pueblo Missions National MonumentNew York Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site Fire Island National Seashore Fort Stanwix National Monument Home of FDR National Historic Site Martin Van Buren National Historic Site National Parks of New York Harbor Castle Clinton National Monument Federal Hall National Memorial Gateway National Recreation Area General Grant National Memorial Governors Island National Monument Hamilton Grange National Memorial Lower East Side Tenement Museum Saint Paul’s Church National Historic Site Statue of Liberty National Monument Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site Sagamore Hill National Historic Site Saratoga National Historical Park Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site Women’s Rights National Historical ParkNorth Carolina Cape Hatteras National Seashore Cape Lookout National Seashore Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site Wright Brothers National MemorialNorth Dakota Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site Theodore Roosevelt National ParkOhio Cuyahoga Valley National Park Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park First Ladies National Historic Site James A. Garfield National Historic Site Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial William Howard Taft National Historic Site

Oklahoma Chickasaw National Recreation AreaOregon Crater Lake National Park Lewis and Clark National Historical Park Oregon Caves National MonumentPennsylvania Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site Eisenhower National Historic Site Fort Necessity National Battlefield Friendship Hill National Historic Site Gettysburg National Military Park Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’ Church) Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site Independence National Historical Park Steamtown National Historic Site Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial Valley Forge National Historical ParkRhode Island Touro Synagogue National Historic SiteSouth Carolina Charles Pinckney National Historic Site Fort Sumter National MonumentSouth Dakota Jewel Cave National Monument Mount Rushmore National Memorial Wind Cave National ParkTennessee Andrew Johnson National Historic Site Fort Donelson National Battlefield Great Smoky Mountains National ParkTexas Fort Davis National Historic Site Guadalupe Mountains National Park Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park San Antonio Missions National Historical ParkUtah Arches National Park Bryce Canyon National Park Capitol Reef National Park Cedar Breaks National Monument Zion National ParkVermont Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical ParkVirginia Appomattox Court House National Historical Park Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial Booker T. Washington National Monument Colonial National Historical Park Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park George Washington Birthplace National Monument Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site Manassas National Battlefield Park Petersburg National Battlefield Richmond National Battlefield Park Shenandoah National Park Wolf Trap Park for the Performing ArtsWashington Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Mount Rainier National Park Olympic National Park San Juan Island National Historical ParkWest Virginia Harpers Ferry National Historic ParkWisconsin Apostle Islands National LakeshoreWyoming Devils Tower National Monument Fort Laramie National Historic Site Grand Teton National Park Yellowstone National Park

7

Far West and Pacific Alaska (p. 16)

California (p. 21)

Hawaii (p. 57)

Oregon (p. 64)

Washington (p. 74)

Far

We

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nd

P

ac

ific

Yukon River

Klondike Gold Rush NHP

Sitka NHP

FAIRBANKS

JUNEAU

ANCHORAGE

PA C I F I C O C E A N

GULF OF ALASKA

BERING SEA

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (p. 17)

Sitka National Historical Park (p. 19)

Alaska

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Skagway, Alaska

www.nps.gov/klgo

The park’s main unit is located in the Skagway area of the Alaska panhandle. Other Alaska units include

the White Pass and the Dyea-Chilkoot Trail, both located nearby. A separate unit is in Seattle. The Skagway

unit is eighty miles north of Juneau by air or water and one hundred ten miles south of Whitehorse by road.

The discovery of gold in August of 1896 by Skookum Jim Mason, Dawson Charlie, and

George Washington Carmack in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada’s Yukon Ter-

ritory set off the last of the great gold rushes. The route to the gold-bearing streams near

Dawson started six hundred miles away at Skagway and crossed into Canada at the top of

either the White Pass Trail or Chilkoot Trail to the Yukon River’s headwaters at Bennett.

From there the army of gold seekers built boats to haul their year’s supply of food—an

absolute must—and gear down the Yukon River to the goldfields at Dawson. By 1897–98,

Skagway was at its peak population of eight to ten thousand. The previous population

of mostly transients staying at Moore’s homesteader cabin, built in 1887, and prospector

tents quickly grew into a frontier mining town with hotels, saloons, and stores.

Almost as quickly as the town grew, it shrank to a population of fewer than three

thousand by 1900 after an 1899 gold discovery across Alaska near more accessible

Nome on the Bering Sea. Skagway’s decline continued to about five hundred in 1930

and was later revived as a World War II supply base. Revival of the mineral industry

in the Yukon in the 1960s, with resources shipped through Skagway and the restored

White Pass, allowed the Yukon Route Railroad (a Gold Rush legacy) to reopen by 1988

Golden North Hotel (courtesy NPS)

Far West and Pacific Alaska 17

Sourcebook of National Park System Architecture 18

as a popular tourist attraction. Through all the vicissitudes of time, a core of late 1890s

buildings remained intact, many restored by the National Park Service (NPS). The

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park’s thirteen thousand acres authorized in

1976, after more than forty years of efforts, includes the Skagway historic district and

portions of Chilkoot and White Pass Trails.

Broadway is at the center of the historic district—two city blocks by six. The archi-

tecture is in the vernacular of frontier America—mostly false fronts, an imposing hotel

with onion dome (the Golden North, 1898), and a former railroad depot (also 1898) serv-

ing as the National Park Service (NPS) visitor center. The architectural legacy is modest.

More important than any individual building is the character of the place. Found here,

as captured in the words of Robert Service and the twenty-one-year-old Jack London, are

the spirit of the Yukon and the experiences of miners on the bone-chilling climbs over the

Chilkoot and White Pass Trails.

One gold rusher, Ezra Meeker crossing the Chilkoot Pass in 1898, wrote:

Frequently every step would be full while crowds jostled each other at the foot of the ascent to

get into single file, each man carrying one hundred to two hundred pounds on his back....As

we looked up that long trough of glistening ice and hard-crusted snow, as steep as the roof of

a house, there was not one of us who did not dread the remainder of the day’s work.

Meeker made it over the pass to reach Dawson with nine tons of his “outfit.” There

is no record of his luck at gold mining.

Prominent with its golden dome at Broadway and Third Avenue, the Golden North

Hotel, built in 1898, is no longer operating as a hotel. Originally two stories, the build-

ing was moved in 1908 by horse and capstan to its present location. A third story and

was also added at that time. Purchased privately in 1997, a renovation restored the

structure; each of the thirty-one rooms were dedicated to gold rush families and filled

with their mementos and antiques. Captured in a display of photographs are memo-

rable views of chains of climbers over the Chilkoot Pass.

The restored old Railroad Depot and General Office Building symbolize Skag-

way’s durability and permanence. Originally two separate buildings, the depot

opened in 1898 and the office building was completed in 1900. The buildings were

joined to handle the expanding baggage and freight business. The hectic times of

1898 produced a hurriedly constructed depot building. From the second-floor bay

windows the dispatcher could see the tracks that once wrapped around the cut-away

southwest corner and headed north on Broadway. Unlike the depot, the later office

building was carefully designed by an architect, originally with walls and ceilings

of plaster on lath. Quality woodwork, stained and varnished, provided a handsome

restored interior.

A fascinating architectural curio—and possibly Alaska’s most photographed—is

the two-story Fraternal Order of the Arctic Brotherhood building. Founded by eleven

goldfield-bound travelers en route from Seattle to Skagway, “Camp Skagway No. 1”

19

The park preserves and interprets an ex-

otic combination of Russian-American

Colonial architecture, the site of a forti-

fication from the 1804 battle between the

Russians and Tlingit Indians, a collection

of Alaskan totem poles, and a scenic rain-

forest. The 113-acre park located in and

adjacent to Sitka is Alaska’s oldest and

smallest national park unit (established

as a national monument in 1910, and des-

ignated a national historical park in 1972).

Russian influence in this part of Alaska originated in 1799 with the establishment

of a fur trading post by Aleksandr Baranov, chief manager of the Russian-American

Company, at Redoubt Saint Michael located seven miles north of Sitka. In 1802, the

native Tlingit Indians moved to end Russian colonization and attacked and wiped out

the Russian outpost. Two years later the Russians returned with a force of nearly one

thousand Russian and Aleut Indians and defeated the Tlingits at Kiksádi Fort. The new

company headquarters in New Archangel (today’s Sitka) became the capital for Russian

America and the shipping point for the company’s trade in furs, fish, ice, and lumber

until depletion of the fur seal and sea otter population by the mid-nineteenth century.

The United States’ 1867 Alaska Purchase ended Russian presence in North America.

One unit of the park located on a heavily forested peninsula projecting into Sitka

Sound and divided by the Indian River contains the site of the 1804 Battle of Sitka fort

was erected in 1899. For reasons unknown, the next year, fraternity members created

the intricate facade decorated with 8,333 pieces of driftwood.

Today, thousands of tourists arrive by cruise ship or by the long overland highway

route to walk the site connected with Alaska’s gold rush days. Camera-toting travel-

ers now visit the places where once miners jostled their way over the Chilkoot Trail

and White Pass Trail and on to the goldfields. The NPS preservation of the Skagway

Historic District and White Pass National Histsoric Landmark and the Chilkoot Trail

and Dyea Site National Historic Landmark offer a glimpse into this exciting episode

of American history.

Far West and Pacific Alaska

Sitka National Historical Park Sitka, Alaska

www.nps.gov/sitk

The park is located in Sitka in the southeast Alaska panhandle on Baranof Island (on the outer coast of

Alaska’s Inside Passage). Access is only by sea and air.

Russian Bishops House (courtesy NPS)

and a self-guided totem pole trail. Fascinating Tlingit and Haida cedar totem poles rise

above the grand spruce and hemlock trees along the scenic coastal Totem Trail, leading

visitors to the fortification and battle site on the shore of Sitka Sound. Among the poles

are originals installed in 1902 and 1906; others are copies by the Civilian Conservation

Corps between 1939 and 1942, and others are done more recently.

The park’s second unit interprets the National Historic Landmark Russian Bish-

op’s House, one half-mile from the park visitor center. The two-story building, com-

pleted in 1843 by the Russian American Company, served as the seminary and offices

for the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska. A National Park Service restoration com-

pleted in 1988 returned the building to its 1853 exterior appearance, interior spaces,

and furnishings. The house is easily recognizable by its bright yellow paint, evenly

spaced white-painted window frames, and red standing-seam metal hip roof. The

main section of the sixteen-room building (42 by 63 feet in plan) is a squared-log struc-

ture with an unused roof truss system; two attached side galleries of timber frame

construction, under sloping shed roofs, have vertical board-and-batten siding. The

first floor displays exhibits interpreting the Orthodox Church, the Russian-American

colonial period, and the house’s history. On the second floor, restored with original

and period furnishings, are the bishop’s living quarters, and Chapel of the Annuncia-

tion, the private worship place of the bishops.

The house is one of only four surviving Russian colonial structures in North

America. The others are in Sitka (Building 29/Tilson House); Kodiak, Alaska (Erskine

House/Russian-American shop); and Cal-

ifornia (the Rotchev House at Fort Ross

State Historic Park).

The park’s visitor center contains in-

terpretive exhibits on Tlingit history and

cultural traditions, and houses the South-

east Alaska Indian Cultural Center with

artists at work. The visitor should expe-

rience other historic structures in Sitka’s

business district about a half-mile from

the main park unit. A replica of onion-

domed 1848 Saint Michael’s Cathedral, destroyed by fire in 1966, contains a remark-

able collection of icons, and the Sheldon-Jackson Museum and Isabel Miller Museum

reward the visitor with a view of native Alaskan, Russian, and American cultures.

Russian Bishops House, Chapel of the

Annunciation (courtesy NPS)


Far

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Cabrillo National Monument (p. 22)

Death Valley National Park (p. 24)

Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site (p. 27)

Fort Point National Historic Site (p. 30)

Golden Gate National Recreation Area (p. 32)

John Muir National Historic Site (p. 35)

Lassen Volcanic National Park (p. 37)

Manzanar National Historic Site (p. 40)

Point Reyes National Seashore (p. 42)

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park (p. 45)

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (p. 47)

Yosemite National Park (p. 52)

California

GooseLake

MonoLake

SaltonSea

LakeTahoe

Col

ora

do R

iver

P A C I F I C

O C E A N

Lassen Volcanic NP

Yosemite NP

Sequoia and Kings NPDeathValley NP

Point Reyes NS

Manzanar NHS

John Muir NHS Eugene O’Neill NHS

Cabrillo NM

LOS ANGELES

SAN DIEGO

SACRAMENTO

SAN FRANCISCOFort Point NHSGolden Gate NRASan Francisco Maritime NHP

Cabrillo National Monument San Diego, San Diego County, California

www.nps.gov/cabr

Cabrillo National Monument is within the city of San Diego at the end of Point Loma. Driving from

Interstate 5 or Interstate 8, take the California 209 (Rosecrans Street) Exit; turn right on Cañon Street; turn

left onto Catalina Boulevard. Follow signs to the park.

San Diego’s 160-acre Cabrillo National Monument, established on October 14, 1913,

celebrates the first landing of Europeans on what is now the western shore of the Unit-

ed States. Sailing under the Spanish flag, explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo ventured

up the West Coast of North America and arrived at San Diego Bay on September 28,

1542. Protecting San Diego Harbor on a headland reaching out into the Pacific Ocean,

Point Loma was long occupied by the military and is the site of one of the last of the

eight original West Coast lighthouses built in the 1850s.

In the days of intensive whaling (1850s to 1885–86), the lighthouse served as a

beacon at the entrance to San Diego Bay, and increasing traffic north up the coast to

San Francisco. The site selected by the U.S. Coastal Survey in 1851 as one of a chain of

navigational aids along the Pacific shore is 422 feet above sea level, overlooking the

bay and the Pacific Ocean. Construction on the lighthouse started in 1854. The lan-

tern containing a Fresnel lens arrived from Paris in August 1855. Although visible for

Old Point Loma Lighthouse


23 Far West and Pacific California

almost thirty miles in clear weather, the location had a serious flaw: coastal fog and

low clouds often obscured the beacon. On March 23, 1891, the keeper, Robert Israel,

extinguished the lamp for the last time. After thirty-six years, the old lighthouse was

abandoned and a new light station went into operation at the bottom of the hill closer

to sea level as a beacon for mariners.

The Cape Cod style, two-story, whitewashed sandstone keeper’s house (20 by 40

feet), with a brick central lighthouse tower was the typical design for the original West

Coast lighthouses. Gable-end chimneys symmetrically frame the dwelling, although

only the south chimney contains first- and second–floor fireplaces. The 22-inch-thick

sandstone outer walls rise from a basement level containing the 1,240-gallon cistern

and the brick base of the 38-foot-high lighthouse tower. The original basement floor

tiles may have came from Fort Guijarros.

Emerging from the dwelling on a 10-foot diameter brick cylinder, 6 feet above

the roof ridgeline, the glass-and-wood-ribbed lantern rises another 15 feet to the pin-

nacle. An entrance to the first floor from an exterior porch accesses the first floor liv-

ing and dining rooms and the tower. A wooden kitchen wing at the building’s rear

was removed sometime after 1913 and replaced with a stucco exterior lean-to in the

mid-1930s. The second floor is divided into two bedrooms and a “watch room” for the

keeper and his assistant. Tower access is up a spiral staircase that turns into a metal

ladder, which opens onto the lantern floor.

The Point Loma Lighthouse houses a third-order Fresnel lens. Invented by French

physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel in 1822, the U.S. Lighthouse Board resisted using his

design until the 1850s. Fresnel lenses are like a glass barrel whose outer surface is

made up of prisms and bulls-eyes. They were classified in seven orders; generally, the

larger a lens the greater its range. In a revolving or flashing light, the bulls-eyes are

surrounded by curved, concentric prisms, concentrating the light of a central lamp

into several individual beams, radiating like the spokes of a wheel. In a fixed, or steady

light, the bulls-eyes become a continuous “lens belt,” with the prisms parallel to it,

producing an uninterrupted, horizontal sheet of light.

The Point Loma third-order lens stood over 5 feet high and 3 feet in diameter. In

the center, a lamp with three circular wicks, one inside the other, produced a flame of

168 candlepower. The lamp used rapeseed oil (Brassica napus) from 1855 to 1867, lard

oil from 1867 to 1882, and kerosene from 1882 to 1891. The lens magnified the flame to

about 19,000 candlepower and was reported in 1862 as visible in clear weather from a

mast height of 20 feet above the sea at a distance of twenty-eight miles.

Disuse of the lighthouse and ravages of time, weather, and vandals brought

about a recommendation in 1913 to tear it down. With a change of heart, the army

made modest repairs in 1915. In an effort to stabilize the structure, the army encour-

aged soldiers and their families to live in it. In the 1920s the lighthouse was used

briefly as a radio station. Restored in 1935 by the National Park Service and later


refurnished as used by the light keeper and his family, the lighthouse is now open

to visitors.

Today, the Old Point Loma Lighthouse stands as a symbol of the first successful

efforts to obtain aids to navigation for the west coast of the United States. The view

from this centerpiece of Cabrillo National Monument is a spectacular seascape of a

great harbor. Every January and February the Whale Overlook, one hundred yards south

of the Old Point Loma Lighthouse, provides superb views of the whale migration.

Death Valley National Park Inyo County, California, and Esmerelda and Nye Counties, Nevada

www.nps.gov/deva

The park is located in southeast California, with a portion in Nevada. US 395 passes west of Death Valley

and connects with California 178 and to the park. US 95 passes on the east and connects with Nevada 267, 374,

and 373 to the park. Interstate 15 passes southeast through Baker, California, on its way from Los Angeles to

Las Vegas. The park is about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from the Las Vegas airport.

Death Valley is the hottest, driest, and lowest place in the contiguous United States with

fascinating geology, canyons, and salt flats; desert surrounded by mountains; extremes

of elevation (Badwater at 282 feet below sea level; and Telescope Peak at 11,049 feet above

sea level); and amazingly abundant flora, fauna, and wildlife. The 3.336 million acres of

Death Valley National Park, established as a national monument in 1933 and redesig-

nated a national park in 1994, is one and one-third times the size of Delaware.

Scotty’s Castle chimes tower


Within this unique combination of heat, landscape, history, and natural life there

are ruins of gold and borate mines, and a remarkable historical structure called Scot-

ty’s Castle located in the northern part of the park, three miles northeast of Grapevine

in Grapevine Canyon, and fifty-three miles north of the Furnace Creek Visitor Cen-

ter. Some of the sites are identifiable only by markers and accessible only by unpaved

roads. The vastness of the park means locating the architectural sites beforehand.

Furnace Creek Visitor Center is a good starting point after entering the park. Along

the way there are opportunities to see the remains of once-thriving Wild West mining

towns scattered throughout Death Valley National Park or within a few miles of the

park’s boundaries. Discoveries of silver, gold, lead, and other minerals are memori-

alized in mines, dumps, tunnels, ruins, cabins, graves, and sometimes only markers

within the park at Greenwater, Panamint City, Harrisburg, and Skidoo. A side trip to the

ruins at Rhyolite, a mining town of five to ten thousand people during its heyday from

1905 to 1911, is a worthwhile experience. The ruins are located outside the east-side park

boundary off Nevada Highway 374, four miles west of Beatty on US Highway 95.

Approaching from Los Angeles, past Wildrose at the end of Wildrose Canyon

Road is a picturesque row of ten masonry beehive-shaped charcoal kilns. Built in 1877

to produce charcoal for two silver-lead smelters in the Argus Range, twenty-five miles

to the west, the kilns shut down in 1878 when the Argus mines’ ore deteriorated in

quality. The structures are approximately 25 feet tall and 30 feet in circumference.

Each kiln held forty-two cords of pinyon pine logs and would, after burning for a week,

produce two thousand bushels of charcoal. The durability of the kilns is attributed to

fine workmanship and short duration of use.

Near the visitor center are remnants of the Harmony Borax Works. A historic foot-

note is the phrase “Twenty Mule Team,” coined for the Pacific Coast Borax Company

by Stephen T. Mather (later to become the National Park Service’s first director) for

the teams hauling the 36 half-ton loads of milled ore (borax) 165 miles to Mojave, a

one-way trip of ten to twelve days. The Keane Wonder Mine, one of the most produc-

tive gold mines in the Death Valley area, is a four-level ruin of buildings, machinery,

Scotty’s Castle adobe wallsWildrose Canyon charcoal kilns


tanks, piping, and waste tailings north of the visitor center off the Beatty cutoff road,

between California Highways 190 and 374.

Death Valley Ranch (Scotty’s Castle) rises out of the desert like an apparition of

a Spanish Mediterranean hacienda, complete with red tile roof and towers, a chimes

tower, and other outbuildings. Through the entrance gate and past the incomplete

swimming pool, the visitor arrives at an entry plaza. The main house is to the left,

the annex is to the right; the wrought-iron-decorated east gate with intricately stone-

carved abutments is aligned with the freestanding clock tower. Built during the 1920s

as a vacation retreat by Albert Johnson, a Chicago insurance executive, the multibuild-

ing complex is in good condition and offers living history tours throughout the his-

toric house museum, an additional small museum, which functions as a visitor center,

a bookstore, and a snack bar.

Construction of Death Valley Ranch began in 1922. Throughout the ten-year con-

struction period Walter “Scotty” Scott, a friend of Johnson, referred to the building as

“my castle,” and it soon became known as “Scotty’s Castle.” In 1926, Los Angeles archi-

tect Charles Alexander MacNeilledge was hired to redesign the main house, including

many of its furnishings and ornaments. His work continued throughout the construc-

tion period. When work ceased in 1931, the complex contained more than 31,000 square

feet of floor space, with the castle, swimming pool, and other features left unfinished.

The two-story-high castle buildings are a mix of wood frame, concrete structural

tiles, and concrete construction; stucco walls and red Mission-style roof tiles complete

the motif of Spanish Mediterranean exteriors. The

castle is adorned with imported handcrafted furni-

ture, European artwork, tile flooring throughout,

wrought-iron hardware, and exposed timber struc-

ture with hand-adze marking, ceiling planking,

and redwood trim. Many of the custom designed

furnishings and fixtures crafted in California for

the Death Valley Ranch reflect a desert motif by in-

corporating the images of regional fauna and flora

in their design. Ties from an abandoned railroad

fueled the fourteen fireplaces. The guesthouse,

stable, cookhouse, and the majority of other sup-

port buildings maintain the same motif of Spanish

Mediterranean character with stucco walls and red

Mission-style roofs.

The main house contains a two-story living

hall with an elegant central chandelier soaring up to the redwood-planked ceiling.

At opposite ends of the approximately 32-foot-square room is a fireplace and a grotto

fountain framed in decorative tiles, respectively. A second-floor gallery surrounds the

Two-story living hall


room. On the north wall of the living hall, the large door of redwood with elaborate

wrought-iron hardware opens onto the 116-foot by 24-foot patio extending the full

length of the building. Other rooms on the first floor are Scotty’s bedroom, the lower

music room, solarium, dining room, kitchen, and porches. The main house’s second

floor contains the Johnsons’ living quarters, a guest suite, a verandah, and stairs to the

tower mounted with a mule team weather vane.

The annex’s first floor contains Mr. Johnson’s office and apartment, Mrs. Johnson’s

apartment with kitchen, enclosed patio, refrigeration room, and a commissary. The sec-

ond floor contains two guest bedrooms with random-patterned tile flooring, an upper

music room, an “Italian Room” with intricately patterned tile flooring, and a separate

open-air lanai. The music room is enriched with a custom-built theater organ, elaborate-

ly carved arched redwood roof trusses, and Spanish gothic-inspired woodwork details.

An internal spiral staircase provides access to the three-story Moorish tower.

The Johnsons died without heirs in the 1940s and willed the castle to a charitable

organization called the Gospel Foundation. The foundation operated the property by

providing tours through the castle and renting out some rooms in the castle for over-

night accommodations. This foundation also took care of Scotty until his death in

1954, selling the property and donating the historic furnishings to the National Park

Service in 1970.

Visitor accommodations and services are available in the park at Furnace Creek

Ranch, Furnace Creek Inn, and Stovepipe Wells Village.

Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site Danville, Contra Costa County, California

www.nps.gov/euon

The Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site is located in Danville, California, twenty-six miles east of San

Francisco in the San Ramon Valley. Visits to the site are by reservation only with the National Park Service.

Nobel Prize and four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Eugene O’Neill built

and lived in Tao House in the hills above Danville, California, from 1937 to 1944.

Visitors to the thirteen-acre National Historic Site (also a National Historic Land-

mark) with a National Park Service (NPS) reservation can view the house and land-

scaped grounds on a guided tour to learn the story of O’Neill and how he influenced

the American theater.

The enormously prolific O’Neill wrote nearly sixty plays in a career spanning

three decades, received four Pulitzer Prizes, and is the only Nobel Prize for Literature-

winning playwright from the United States. He created exciting plays, often about tor-

tured family relationships and the conflict between idealism and materialism, taxing

actors, scenic designers, and audiences with the demands of his imagination. Restless


and rootless most of his life, the introspective playwright and his wife, Carlotta, were

living in a San Francisco hotel in early 1937: “No roots. No home,” she wrote as they

searched for a place to live. O’Neill had begun work on a cycle of plays about the his-

tory of an Irish American family, planned ultimately as a cycle of eleven plays. The

O’Neills sought an isolated place to work so that concentration could be continuous

and undisturbed.

The isolated 158-acre ranch in the San Ramon Valley east of San Francisco Bay

attracted O’Neill and Carlotta with its privacy and climate. Using the Nobel Prize sti-

pend, in 1937 they purchased the ranch and built the Spanish Mission-style house set

against the Las Trampas ridge at an elevation of 700 feet. Here, they planned what

O’Neill came to call the Tao House his “final harbor.”

Surrounded by extensive landscaped grounds, the two-story structure with

white baselite brick walls, verandahs, and a black tile roof reflect the Chinese-in-

fluenced interior. O’Neill’s interest in Eastern thought and Carlotta’s passion for

Oriental art and décor inspired the name Tao House. An interior of deep blue ceil-

ings and red doors, terra-cotta tile, and black-stained wood floors, and a collection

of fine Chinese furniture create a cool, dark atmosphere. Drawn shades protected

Carlotta’s sensitivity to light.

A few rooms of Tao House are completely refurnished, and photographs in other

rooms show the O’Neills at home. One of the rooms, known as “Rosie’s Room,” was

built especially for the O’Neills’ pea-green player piano adorned with painted roses.

A glimpse of the intensity of O’Neill’s labor can be experienced by a visit to the play-

wright’s second-floor study, which is entered through a sequence of three doors and a

closet, sheltered by thick walls, where O’Neill poured out his masterpieces. Carlotta

remembered her husband emerging from his study red-eyed and gaunt after working

on his “soul-grinding” work. He regarded these plays as his life achievement.

Sheltered by the Tao House solitude,

O’Neill produced his final and most suc-

cessful plays: The Iceman Cometh, Hughie, A

Moon for the Misbegotten, and his autobio-

graphical Long Day’s Journey into Night. Dur-

ing his years there he turned his back on

the theatrical world, giving himself over

to transforming his past into the plays that

made him America’s most awarded play-

wright. Wartime unavailability of staff

and the inability of either of the O’Neills

to drive forced them to leave the sanctuary. Suffering from a rare degenerative disease

and unable to write after 1943, Eugene ultimately moved to Boston with his wife where,

at age sixty-five, shorn of his writing ability, he died in a hotel room in 1953.

Eugene O’Neill’s Tao House

29

The NPS continues to improve the visitor’s experience at the Tao House and

grounds through the acquisition of Eugene and Carlotta O’Neill memorabilia and

original furnishings or period replicas reflective of the house’s character. Seismic ret-

rofit in 2001 ensures the stability of the unreinforced masonry walls. O’Neill plays are

produced every spring and fall in the restored historic barn, providing a west coast

connection with the resurgence of interest in O’Neill’s plays on Broadway.

Few visitors can leave this quiet atmosphere without the desire to reach for a vol-

ume of O’Neill’s plays or seek out listings of active productions. Standing in the iso-

lated second-floor study of the playwright recalls Sinclair Lewis’s Nobel Prize lecture

(December 12, 1930) about O’Neill, “who has done nothing much in American drama

save to transform it utterly, in ten or twelve years, from a false world of neat and com-

petent trickery to a world of splendor and fear and greatness, you would have been

reminded that he has done something far worse than scoffing—he has seen life as not

to be neatly arranged in the study of a scholar but as a terrifying, magnificent and often

quite horrible thing akin to a tornado, earthquake or a devastating fire.”

Far West and Pacific California

Eugene and Carlotta O’Neill, 1941 (courtesy Bienecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)

the national park architecture sourcebook

Documents

national parks

web site

streetnew york

kings canyon

russell fernandez

becca casbon

penny yuen pik chu

katharine myers