Statement of Significance

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Seven structures and other individual features described in this amendment are eligible for listing under Criterion A (for their association with the history and development of Crater Lake National Park), Criterion B (for their association with site planning and design by four NPS landscape architects: Charles Punchard, Thomas Vint, Merel Sager, and Francis Lange), Criterion C (as outstanding examples of naturalistic design, in the areas of architecture and landscape architecture), and Criterion D (the district yields important information about the precepts of naturalistic planting and rustic design in Crater Lake National Park; these resources contribute significant information relating to planning concepts prevalent in the 1920s and 1930s).

See the original form, especially pages 3-7 in this section, for a summary of National Park Service planning and development at Rim Village. That submission, however, lacked an inventory of designed landscape features in the district and could not fully address the significance of these resources. The subsequent cultural landscape report further developed two previously established themes of historical significance, rustic architecture and park development, by relating them to NPS efforts aimed at creating a designed landscape for Rim Village between 1927 and 1941. A copy of this document is included as part of the amendment, as is the Statement of Historic Contexts in a related multiple property form prepared by the NPS in 1995.

Development of a framework with which to assess the individual features of a designed historic landscape at Rim Village led to reexamination of two buildings as contributing structures. [1] An inventory card submitted with the original form stated that the Kiser Studio would not contribute to a National Register nomination emphasizing the park's rustic architecture. [2] Since the original form was prepared, however, the building's significance (which previously rested on its association with scenic photographer Fred Kiser) has been reexamined in light of new information about the NPS role in its design.

Stephen Mather, first director of the NPS, appointed Charles P. Punchard, Jr., to be the agency's first landscape architect in 1918. Punchard served alone in this capacity until his death two years later, but during this period provided a philosophical framework to guide future development in national parks while emphasizing the need for management aimed at preserving park landscapes. He influenced subsequent decisions by ensuring that developments were based on preconceived plans and provided landscape architects with an important role in locating park facilities. [3]

Punchard assisted in locating the Kiser Studio, but can also be credited with setting the parameters for its design. After reviewing Kiser's proposal for a photography studio at Rim Village in early 1920, Punchard recommended that the park's native stone which was "so interesting and works so well in buildings" be used as an architectural theme extending from the Crater Lake Lodge. [4] This countered Kiser's original intention of building the structure only from logs, as the park's entrance stations had been in 1917. Punchard also convinced Kiser to create a terrace effect on the studio's north side to attract visitors, who would enjoy views of the lake from there. Kiser thereupon had a contractor erect a building whose allusion to the Arts and Crafts Movement was evident in its lower story walls of stone masonry, a wood frame upper story, and a porch on the lakeside where seating was available. When funds allowed the NPS to begin construction of a promenade with parapet wall several years later, the studio and its "terrace" were readily incorporated into the designed landscape. [5]

Another building, the Community House, is a contributing structure to the designed landscape despite diminished architectural integrity. [6] Although the porch is gone and original shingle siding has been replaced with horizontal boards, this building retains most of its relatively simple rustic features. Its fairly austere appearance is largely due to a $1,500 limitation on the cost construction that limited the design possibilities for park buildings between 1917 and 1926. [7] Nevertheless, the Community House retains a compelling association with the former campground since this type of structure often accompanied the development of campgrounds for automobiles in city, state, and national parks during the 1920s. As the oldest extant NPS-built structure in the park, it gave the agency a presence at Rim Village and represents a stage in park development.

One other building within the district, the Cafeteria, is a noncontributing structure because it lacks qualities associated with the original design intent. The Cafeteria still functions as it did historically, but additions to the building in 1956, 1970, and 1971 tripled the floor space while obscuring the battered stone and other rustic features formerly evident from the plaza. It has lost much of its architectural integrity as a result, and is presently almost unrecognizable from the building constructed in 1928.

Endnotes

1. Three comfort stations in the campground (buildings #117, #119. and #123) were not included on the original form. All three (referenced in the cultural landscape report as comfort stations #1, #2, and #3) were removed by the NPS in 1991.

2. The inventory card also raised questions about architectural and structural integrity, concerns repeated on page 10, section 8, of the original form.

3. Linda Flint McClelland, Presenting Nature: The Historic Landscape Design of the National Park Service, 1916 to 1942 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1993), pp. 81-88.

4. Punchard to Mather, February 6, 1920, Record Group 79, Central Classified Files 1907-1939, File 900-01, Part 1, Crater Lake Public Utility Operators, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

5. McClelland, pp. 90-91.

6. The inventory card submitted with the original form focused on changes summarized in Section 7 of this amendment to substantiate a finding that the Community House would not contribute to a nomination emphasizing the park's rustic architecture. The original form (page 10, section 8) focused on a lack of structural integrity, apparently because cables are used to brace the building against heavy snow.

7. McClelland, pp. 100-101.