Crater Lake Lodge was built to encourage tourism to Crater Lake National
Park and southwestern Oregon. It opened to guests during the summer of
1915. Its clientele has included people from all over the world. Most
guests have had fond remembrances of their stays, even though the lodge
was often in an unfinished state. Throughout its history the lodge lacked
expected hotel standards for comfort, privacy, and service, and suffered
from neglect.
Before construction of the lodge began in 1909, William G. Steel and
other supporters of a hotel had a difficult time finding a developer that
would commit to the project. It was not an easy undertaking to build and
operate a major lodging facility on the edge of the caldera overlooking
Crater Lake. The harsh climate with severe winter weather for more than
eight months of the year was daunting. At the time, the area was not very
accessible. A trip to the park was an arduous journey over many miles of
unpaved and poorly constructed roads.
Steel finally convinced Alfred Parkhurst, a Portland developer, to take
on the project. However, Parkhurst had no experience constructing
buildings that needed to withstand the weight of 15 foot snow depths that
accumulate during Crater Lake’s long winters. Unlike at Portland,
construction work was limited to a short three month summer season. Labor
and materials had to be brought great distances into the remote and
largely undeveloped park. These and other obstacles combined to cause long
delays, driving up the cost of the lodge.
Spiraling costs forced Parkhurst to find savings elsewhere in the
project. When the lodge opened in the summer of 1915, the furnishings
seemed spartan. Exterior walls were clad in tar paper. Interior walls of
the guest rooms were finished with thin cardboard-like “beaver board.”
There were no private bathrooms, and a small generator provided
electricity.
Although business profits lagged due to high operational costs, Crater
Lake Lodge drew large crowds. Early 20th century visitors probably
accepted the substandard accommodations because of the rigorous trip
needed to reach the park. Though the lodge lacked amenities and
atmosphere, visitors were compensated by the magnificent views of Crater
Lake and the surrounding peaks of the Cascade Range.
When it was enlarged and upgraded from 1922 through 1924, the number of
guest rooms more than doubled. Plumbing was expanded, and as a result most
of the rooms in the new annex and annex wing had private bathrooms.
However, a lack of investment capital plagued the expansion. Many guest
rooms were left unfinished. The lodge suffered with the decline in
visitation and business during the early 1930s, the worst years of the
Great Depression. Little was spent to keep up the facility. It was not
until the mid 1930s that guest rooms on the second and third floors of the
annexes were finished. The lodge was situated in a barren and very dusty
environment. Cars had destroyed most of the surrounding vegetation.
One of the great improvements made during the 1930s was the development
of a landscape for Rim Village which included plantings around Crater Lake
Lodge. In contrast to the privately funded hotel, this publicly funded
project was accomplished by the National Park Service and the Civilian
Conservation Corps. The new landscape included hundreds of indigenous
trees and shrubs, and helped to blend the structure into its surroundings.
As part of the project, new paved parking areas and walkways were built
adjacent to the lodge. This significantly reduced the blowing dust and
erosion problems around the building and gave the area a more “natural”
appearance.
Both the park and Crater Lake Lodge were closed for most of World War
II. After the war, park visitation increased dramatically, as did business
at the lodge. However, age and many years of neglect took a heavy toll on
the building.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the National Park Service continually
prodded, with mixed results, the lodge’s owners to upgrade utilities and
fire prevention measures. After fifty years of severe winters on the
caldera’s edge, the lodge’s inadequate structural system was showing signs
of advanced deterioration. Cables stretched between the north and south
walls to try to keep them from bowing. Floors and ceilings were sagging,
and cracks appeared in the masonry. Only small amounts of money were
invested in piecemeal fashion to keep the lodge open every summer. This
Band-Aid approach left utility systems and life-safety measures lagging
behind contemporary codes and standards.
The National Park Service acquired ownership of Crater Lake Lodge in
1967, but the building continued to deteriorate. Despite being listed on
the National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service felt
that it was too expensive to fix and maintain. The agency failed to
implement a proposal to demolish the building once it found public opinion
to save the lodge too strong. Consequently, the agency approved a plan to
save Crater Lake Lodge as part of the comprehensive Rim Village
Redevelopment Program in 1988.
Engineers contracted by the National Park Service monitored the
structural integrity of the lodge through the 1980s. In the spring of
1989, just before the lodge was to open for the summer season, the
engineers advised the park that the Great Hall wing was unsafe for
occupants. They predicted this part of the building might collapse of its
own weight, bringing down the rest of the lodge with it. This compelled
the National Park Service to keep the lodge closed and begin a
comprehensive rehabilitation project.
The plan to rehabilitate Crater Lake Lodge called for returning the
exterior appearance and interior public areas to that of the late 1920s.
After nearly two years of planning and design, construction work began in
1991. Some original materials, such as the masonry stones, were salvaged
for reuse, but very little of the original building could be saved. The
Great Hall wing was dismantled and rebuilt. Most of the rest was gutted. A
steel structural support system, utilities, life-safety systems, and
modern hotel standards were built into the new facility. The
rehabilitation of Crater Lake Lodge was completed in the fall of 1994 at a
cost of more than $15,000,000.
On May 20, 1995, Crater Lake Lodge reopened to the public. Patrons and
visitors could again enjoy its accommodations and services safely, and in
an atmosphere reminiscent of the 1920s. For the first time since its
original opening eighty years before, Crater Lake Lodge was a project
finally completed.
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