Old Faithful Inn - Yellowstone National Park
Historic American Buildings Survey. 17. Looking East, Old Faithful Inn, Entrance Drive. (Taken from Cherry Picker). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.wy0093.photos/?sp=19.
When the Northern Pacific Railroad’s Upper Geyser Basin Hotel burned to the ground on November 17, 1894, the U.S government pressured the railroad to replace it with new tourist accommodations. The result was Old Faithful Inn, which utilized a new style of architecture to highlight Yellowstone’s iconic landscape.
On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant officially signed Yellowstone into law as America’s first national park. The Yosemite Act of 1864 had restricted settlement in the Yosemite Valley and placed it under the jurisdiction of California’s state government, but the Yellowstone Park Act expanded upon this legislation by designating all of Yellowstone a public park. As a result, the Yellowstone Park Act contained many restrictions on private development and very few administrative procedures to enforce regulations or oversee public use. Poorly supervised independent companies called concessionaires, who paid park administrators a fee to use the land, ran Yellowstone’s public facilities. Only a few concessionaires ferried guests into the park, but the Northern Pacific Railroad quickly expressed interest in Yellowstone’s small tourism industry.
When the Northern Pacific reached Gardiner, Montana, in the early 1880s, its presence provoked interest in Yellowstone’s tourism industry. At this time, only a few concessionaires opened small hotels and tent camps. One such concessionaire, the Yellowstone Park Improvement Company, constructed the Upper Geyser Basin Hotel in 1885 to preserve its failing business. The Northern Pacific purchased its properties in 1885, gaining control of the Upper Geyser Basin Hotel. When fire destroyed it in 1894, the importance of a new hotel in Yellowstone became clear. At the time, many railroad hotels utilized conventional architectural styles that provided a sense of familiarity for their upper-class audience. The Northern Pacific’s Lake Hotel, constructed in 1890, followed this example. However, rustic architecture, which emphasized harmony with the natural environment surrounding a structure, gained popularity in the 1890s. Because distinctive architecture drew more attention from visitors, the Northern Pacific experimented with a rustic style for its new hotel.
The Yellowstone Park Association, a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific, selected Robert Reamer to design its new rustic hotel. The railroad constructed the log building near Yellowstone’s most famous geyser, from which the Old Faithful Inn derived its name. The Union Pacific completed the central core of the hotel, known as the “Old House,” in 1903. The finished building was seven stories tall at its highest point, and it cost a total of $140,000 (about $4.9 million today) to construct. The Northern Pacific set aside a further $25,000 (approximately $875,000 today) to furnish the new hotel. Reamer designed his massive log structure to emulate Swiss chalets and Norwegian villas, and he utilized rough, unfinished wood logs obtained in the Park on both the inside and outside of the building to connect it to Yellowstone’s forested landscape. The hotel’s most prominent feature is its seven-story lobby, which features a vast fireplace made of native stone. A complex log frame that supports the hotel’s roof surrounds this room. The structure’s use of exposed wooden supports emphasizes the rustic nature of the lobby, and a series of wooden balconies overlook the main floor of the hotel.Images
Historic American Buildings Survey. 17. Looking East, Old Faithful Inn, Entrance Drive. (Taken from Cherry Picker). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.wy0093.photos/?sp=19.
Historic American Buildings Survey. 22. Rear View of Old Faithful Inn, Looking Northwest at the Bear Pit. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.wy0093.photos/?sp=24.
Historic American Buildings Survey. 28. Lobby, Looking East from the Third Floor. The Obelisk Shaped Fireplace is Fully Visible at the Right. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.wy0093.photos/?sp=30.
Peaco, Jim. Old Faithful Inn, lobby, 2013. NPGallery, https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/56BAC088-155D-451F-67770ADA808F85E2.
Detroit Publishing Company. U.P. Ry. [Union Pacific Railway] Station, Gardiner, Mont., c. 1905. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchCode=LCCN&searchArg=2002699810&searchType=1&permalink=y.