Lodge · Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming · Built 1903–1904; east wing 1913–1914; west wing 1927
Old Faithful Inn
Robert Reamer's log-and-shingle hotel of 1903–04 within sight of Old Faithful geyser, with a lobby rising some 92 feet to the roof ridge around a huge stone fireplace; the prototype for the great western park lodges.
History
Travelers at the Upper Geyser Basin had made do with a crude frame hotel known as the Shack, and the railroad-backed concession company was obliged to replace it, building no closer than an eighth of a mile to Old Faithful. A turreted Queen Anne design was drawn by A. W. Spalding in 1898 and approved, but never built. Harry W. Child of the Yellowstone Park Association instead hired Robert Reamer, a 29-year-old Ohio-born architect who had come west to design the Northern Pacific depot at Gardiner, Montana. Reamer drew a rustic hotel that owed something to the Adirondack camps, and crews worked through the winter of 1903–04 with lodgepole pine cut about eight miles south, where a temporary sawmill was set up, and rhyolite from nearby. The Inn opened in 1904, lit by electricity and heated by steam, at a cost of about $140,000 plus $25,000 in furnishings.
Reamer stayed on as its architect for a quarter century. An east wing of 100 rooms followed in 1913–14, the dining room was enlarged in 1922, and in 1927 a Y-shaped west wing added 150 rooms while the lobby was pushed forward to the porte-cochere. The Bear Pit lounge, with carved bear scenes suggested by Reamer, opened in 1936. The park's hotels closed during the Second World War. On August 17, 1959, the Hebgen Lake earthquake toppled the dining room chimney and cracked the lobby fireplace, and in 1988 firefighters and a new roof sprinkler system saved the building from the North Fork Fire. A thorough rehabilitation of the original Old House, begun for the centennial in 2004, was completed in 2008.
“The gnarled log brackets attached to the log columns of the framing serve no structural purpose, and were put there solely for decoration.”
Architecture
The Old House rests on a rhyolite base rising to the first-floor sills, with load-bearing log walls below and shingled frame walls above, the lowest shingle courses sawn in a diamond pattern. Its steep gable roof takes up six of seven stories, pierced by three tiers of dormers, some false, and capped by a widow's walk that once held searchlights for night eruptions. Inside, the lobby climbs about 92 feet past two log balconies to the Crow's Nest, where musicians once played. Twisted branches serve as brackets and railings. The stone fireplace is sixteen feet square at its base, with an iron and brass clock on its face; the dining room has log scissor trusses. The wings are plain shingled frame with flat roofs.
What to look for
- Gnarled log brackets and railings in the lobby
- The Crow's Nest high in the roof framing
- Reamer's iron and brass clock on the lobby fireplace
- Hand-forged hinges and lock on the front door
- Bear Pit panels, replicated in etched glass
Setting
The Inn stands in the Upper Geyser Basin at about 7,350 feet, its entrance porch angled so that arriving guests saw Old Faithful framed by the porte-cochere. The porch roof is a viewing platform for eruptions, and boardwalks lead across the Firehole River to Geyser Hill. The lower, rustic Old Faithful Lodge stands on the far side of the geyser.
Timeline
- 1898A. W. Spalding's unbuilt Queen Anne design approved
- 1903–1904Old House built through the winter; opens in 1904
- 1913–1914East wing added
- 1927West wing built and lobby extended
- 1959Hebgen Lake earthquake damages the fireplaces
- 1988Saved from the North Fork Fire
- 2004–2008Rehabilitation of the Old House
Where sources differ
- The nomination dates the west wing to 1927; Wikipedia gives 1927–28 in one place.
- Claims that the Inn is the largest log hotel or log building in the world are widely repeated but not established by the nomination.
- The 'Christmas in August' blizzard story is park lore with no fixed date.
