Lake Hotel, Yellowstone National Park, Teton County, Wyoming. Initially constructed in 1891, the Lake Hotel was entirely reconceived in the first decades of the 20th century as a grand resort hotel displaying the Colonial Revival style as adapted to the context of a national park in the western United States. Located on the north shore of Yellowstone Lake, the hotel expansion and redesign was spearheaded by noted architect Robert C. Reamer.
Today, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis announced the designation of Lake Hotel in Yellowstone National Park and four other resources as National Historic Landmarks. Director Jarvis noted “National historic landmarks preserve some of our nation’s most remarkable places and demonstrate the power of partnerships between the National Park Service and historic property owners. These new landmarks offer opportunities for more Americans to make personal connections with our nation’s cultural and historical heritage and have the potential to drive tourism and boost local economies.” National Historic Landmarks recognize places that possess exceptional value and quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States. The press release included this description:
Lake Hotel, Yellowstone National Park, Teton County, Wyoming. Initially constructed in 1891, the Lake Hotel was entirely reconceived in the first decades of the 20th century as a grand resort hotel displaying the Colonial Revival style as adapted to the context of a national park in the western United States. Located on the north shore of Yellowstone Lake, the hotel expansion and redesign was spearheaded by noted architect Robert C. Reamer.
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Laurie and Tom Simmons presented the results of the Park County Cemetery Multiple Property Documentation Form project at a public meeting at the Fairplay Community Center in Fairplay on 18 March. The PowerPoint presentation discussed the types of county cemeteries identified (town, community, and family) and noted cemetery characteristics, including markers, iconography, and grave enclosure fencing. Tom Simmons presented "Documenting William Jackson Palmer's 'Little London" at the 2015 Southwest Social Science Association meeting in Denver on 9 April. In establishing Colorado Springs in 1871, Denver and Rio Grande Railroad magnate William Jackson Palmer sought to make it “the most attractive place in the West for homes—a place for schools, colleges, literature, science, first-class newspapers and everything the above imply.” Palmer, who resided on a nearby estate, Glen Eyrie, envisioned the city as a health and pleasure resort for his friends and like-minded inhabitants drawn from the moneyed classes of the East and Europe. Attracting scores of English immigrants, the community soon earned the nickname “Little London” and capitalized on its healthy climate, scenic location at the base of 14,210’ Pikes Peak, and such nearby attractions as the Garden of the Gods and mineral hot springs. The original townsite included land for two large parks and a site for an institution of higher learning, the latter occupied in 1874 by Colorado College. An impressive array of buildings emerged, often featuring Colorado materials and designed by distinguished local architects and noted Eastern firms. When an 1890s mining boom at Cripple Creek produced more than two dozen Colorado Springs millionaires, many used their wealth to develop substantial business blocks, erect elaborate mansions, and undertake philanthropic endeavors supporting the culture of Colorado Springs. Since 1996 Front Range Research Associates, a Denver historic preservation consulting firm, has documented properties embodying the architectural and historical significance of Colorado Springs for the city and Colorado College. This presentation will examine how the city’s sense of place, shaped by Palmer’s original vision, is seen in properties such as the Colorado College campus, Van Briggle Art Pottery, Monument Valley Park, First Congregational Church, and Colorado Springs City Hall. The National Park Service Washington office approved the National Register nomination for the Dodge-Hamlin House on 3 December 2014. Located on the campus of Colorado College, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the 1916 Mission Revival-style house was erected by prominent newspaper publisher and Progressive Party leader Clarence P. Dodge. Crusading anti-Ku Klux Klan publisher Clarence C. Hamlin resided in the house from 1923 until his death in 1940. In addition to its historical associations, the house is significant for its architecture and landscape architecture, as a work of local master architect Nicolaas van den Arend. The intact residential landscape reflects City Beautiful concepts espoused by van den Arend. Front Range staff has organized a session at the 2015 Saving Places Conference in Denver of Colorado Preservation Inc.: “Survey and Nomination of a Rural Historic Landscape District: Along the Tarryall in Park County.” It will be presented on 5 February, Thursday, 4:00-5:15pm. Speakers will include: Linda Balough, Director, Park County Department of Heritage, Tourism and Community Development and Executive Director of the South Park National Heritage Area, Fairplay; Jonathon C. Horn, Principal Investigator and Founder of Alpine Archaeological Consultants, Inc., Montrose; and Thomas H. Simmons, Architectural Historian and Founder of Front Range Research Associates, Inc., Denver. Documenting and nominating a large rural historic landscape district is one of the most complex challenges preservationists face. In this session, we will explore the magnificent setting and rich history of Park County’s Tarryall Rural Historic Landscape District, which includes some of Colorado’s oldest high-altitude ranches, one-room schools, cemeteries, a townsite, a reservoir, and a multitude of architectural, archaeological, and landscape components along one of the state’s oldest roads. Groundbreaking in its scope, this multi-year effort to study the 39-mile-long district began in 1995 with a major cultural resource inventory project. A series of surveys and an examination of the area’s National Register district potential followed, culminating in a 2014 nomination. The presentation will include an overview of the environment and historic resources of the district and discussion of local government sponsorship, responsibilities, and management of large rural historic landscape projects; the importance of assessing archaeological potential at historic sites where standing buildings are perceived as the most important elements; and some of the approaches and techniques developed to build on information resulting from the survey projects and craft the nomination. A presentation by Tom Simmons of Front Range--"Documenting William Jackson Palmer’s 'Little London'"”--has been accepted for inclusion at the Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Social Science Association in Denver, Colorado, in April 2015. The presentation, discussing historic resources in Colorado Springs documented by Front Range, will be part of a panel comparing and contrasting the development and history of Colorado Springs ("Little London") and Pueblo ("the Pittsburgh of the West"). Other participants will include Adam Thomas and Mary Therese Anstey of Historitecture. The National Park System Advisory Board recommended approval of Lake Hotel as a National Historic Landmark (NHL) at its 23-24 October meeting at Grand Canyon National Park. The designation will be forwarded to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell for her action. In 1903-04 architect Robert C. Reamer remodeled and expanded the hotel into a Western example of a Colonial Revival grand resort hotel.
The Colorado State Review Board recommended listing of the Tarryall Rural Historic Landscape District (RHLD) in the National Register of Historic Places on 19 September. Marilyn Martorano of Martorano Consultants LLC assisted Front Range with archaeological aspects of the nomination. The 28,000-plus acre district extends for more than 39 miles along County Road 77 (Tarryall Road) in Park County, Colorado. A historic road extended through the district from Colorado City to mining areas at Fairplay and Tarryall in the early 1860s. Improved access made the area attractive for cattle ranching and hay raising which became the historic focus of the region. The district includes more than twenty ranch headquarters, recreation-related resources, one-room country schools, and an abundance of Pioneer Log construction. Two owners of water rights were permitted to opt out of the district creating a discontiguous district of four pieces. The district will not be forwarded to the National Park Service until the expiration of a water rights comment period in mid-December.
On 19 September the Colorado State Review Board recommended approval of the 1916 Dodge-Hamlin House on the campus of Colorado College, Colorado Springs, for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Designed by local architect Nicholaas van den Arend for newspaper publisher and Progressive leader Clarence P. Dodge, the Mission Revival-style dwelling features City Beautiful concepts in its landscaping. Newspaper publisher and anti-Ku Klux Klan crusader Clarence C. Hamlin and his family occupied the house from 1923-43. Colorado College acquired the building in 1943 and has used it to houses students, faculty, and staff since then.
Front Range staff attended the 2014 Preserve Wyoming conference in Powell, Wyoming, last week, as well as a pre-conference workshop on cultural landscapes held at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center. The workshop featured Zehra Osman (NPS Yellowstone National Park) who provided an introduction to cultural landscapes, which she characterized as the tapestry on which other cultural resources reside. Craig Bromley (Lander BLM Office) discussed his agency's efforts to preserve national historic trails in an era of rapidly increasing use. Chester Liebs, author of Main Street to Miracle Mile, delivered the keynote presentation at the Friday lunch. Liebs traced the evolution in acceptance of roadside architecture as resources worthy of preservation and provided examples from a roadside reconnaissance he made in southeastern Wyoming. Beth King of the Wyoming SHPO described recent systematic efforts by that office to document roadside resources in the Cowboy State. |
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