NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION NFS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK Page 1 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service______________________________________________National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 1. NAME OF PROPERTY Historic Name: MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK Other Name/Site Number: 2. LOCATION Street & Number: Tahoma Woods-Star Route Not for publication:__ City/Town: Ashford Vicinity: X State: WA County: Pierce/Lewis Code: 053/041 Zip Code: 98304-9801 3. CLASSIFICATION Ownership of Property Category of Property Private: _ Building(s): Public-Local: _ District: X Public-State: Site: Public-Federal: X Structure: Object: _ Number of Resources within Property Contributing Non-contributing 95 18 buildings _ _ sites 60 12 structures 3 _ objects 158 30 Total Number of Contributing Resources Previously Listed in the National Register: 119 Name of Related Multiple Property Listing: Historic Resources of Mount Rainier National Park; Historic Park Landscapes in National and State Parks, 1995 NFS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK Page 2 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service______________________________________________National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 4. STATE/FEDERAL AGENCY CERTIFICATION As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, I hereby certify that this _ X nomination __ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property __ meets __ does not meet the National Register Criteria. Signature of Certifying Official Date State or Federal Agency and Bureau In my opinion, the property __ meets __ does not meet the National Register criteria. Signature of Commenting or Other Official Date State or Federal Agency and Bureau 5. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that this property is: __ Entered in the National Register __ Determined eligible for the National Register __ Determined not eligible for the National Register __ Removed from the National Register __ Other (explain): ____________________ Signature of Keeper Date of Action NFS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK Page 3 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service____ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 6. FUNCTION OR USE Historic: Landscape Sub: Park Recreation & Culture Sub: Outdoor Recreation Domestic Sub: Single Dwelling Domestic Sub: Multiple Dwelling Domestic Sub: Institutional Housing Domestic Sub: Hotel Transportation Sub: Road-related Current: Landscape Sub: Park Recreation & Culture Sub Outdoor Recreation Domestic Sub: Single Dwelling Domestic Sub: Multiple Dwelling Domestic Sub: Institutional Housing Domestic Sub: Hotel Transportation Sub: Road-related 7. DESCRIPTION ARCHITECTURAL CLASSIFICATION: Bungalow/Craftsman Other: NPS Rustic MATERIALS: Foundation: Stone/Concrete Walls: Stone/Log/Shingle Roof: Shingle Other: Site Furnishings: Stone/Wood/Metal/Concrete Pavements and Curbs: Packed Earth/Gravel/Asphalt/Stone/Concrete Retaining Walls and Other Landscape Structures: Concrete/Stone/Packed Earth NFS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK Page 4 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service______________________________________________National Register of Historic Places Registration Form Describe Present and Historic Physical Appearance. Summary The setting of Mount Rainier, towering above the surrounding Cascade Ranges, is one of the most scenic and historically significant recreation areas in the West. At lower elevations the mountain is clothed in old growth forests of Douglas-fir and Western red cedar and hemlock. Extravagant wildflower displays fill the high meadows just above the treeline during the short summers. The system of glaciers that crown the mountain is the nation's largest outside Alaska, and the peak itself is the third highest in the continental United States. The park has historically drawn large numbers of visitors and continues to be a major attraction for scientists, climbers, hikers, and tourists. The Mount Rainier National Historic Landmark (NHL) District encompasses almost all of the roads, historic developed areas, and historic backcountry structures of the park. The historic district is a discontiguous district with a contiguous core that follows the park road system as a corridor. This historic corridor connects and includes all the major developed areas of the park, and includes the Wonderland Trail (the 93-mile loop trail system around the mountain) and the two spur entrance roads in the northwestern corner of the park (see attached map). The discontiguous (backcountry) portions of the district are the 11 backcountry cabins and shelters, and the four fire lookouts that are not within the contiguous district as defined below. All of these buildings and some of these structures were first listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. Unlike the National Register multiple resource nomination, the NHL District is a single district with discontiguous portions. This is appropriate because the NHL nomination stresses the history of National Park Service master planning, an aspect of the larger practice of Park Service landscape architecture. Beginning in the late 1920s, the master plan for Mount Rainier was the first and the most complete national park master plan to be developed and implemented by the landscape division. The goal of all such plans was to locate, coordinate, and integrate all park systems and facilities in a unified, comprehensive plan. Most facilities were concentrated along the park road system in order to limit the impact of development to a narrow area. This fact makes it easy to define a single corridor district (following the park roads and the Wonderland Trail) that encompasses all the major developed areas of the park. Some facilities, however, were planned with the opposite intention; backcountry patrol cabins and fire lookouts, for example, were carefully scattered throughout the park in order to effectively serve park administration and fire control. Since the significance of this NHL District depends on the history of park master planning a discipline which treated the park as a synthetic whole, not as a group of fragmented resources all the facilities and systems that represent the historic master planning process should be included in a single district. Therefore the use of a discontiguous NHL District is desirable and justified in this case. Thomas Vint and his landscape division compiled master plans for almost every national park and monument in the late 1920s and early 1930s, but few plans were as significant or as complete as the plans for Mount Rainier. The physical integrity of the developed areas and facilities of Mount Rainier also set it apart. As a whole, no other collection of park roads, bridges, major and minor developed areas, trails, etc., are more completely preserved as an intact example of park planning of the period. Very few postwar construction projects have had a large impact on the designed landscapes built during the period of significance. No other park in the national park system is better preserved, as whole, as a complete illustration of park planning and development of the period. Five of the buildings within the NHL District described here have already been designated as NHLs for their architectural significance. For more detailed information on all the buildings in this historic district, please consult the 1991 National Register nomination for Mount Rainier National Park and the 1986 NHL Theme Study of National Park Architecture. This NHL nomination is submitted in the NFS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK Page 5 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service______________________________________________National Register of Historic Places Registration Form theme of landscape architecture, and primarily describes historic resources that relate to landscape architectural design and planning. Description of Contributing Resources in the Historic District The following description of contributing resources in the NHL District is divided into six categories: Spatial Organization Circulation Topography Vegetation Structures Buildings Spatial organization refers to the composition and sequence of outdoor spaces within the district. Circulation refers to the means and patterns of movement through the district. Topography refers to the ways in which the landscape planning responds to the topographic features of the site, and also to modifications of that topography. Vegetation also refers both to the response to existing vegetation, and to the management of vegetation through pruning, removal, or addition of trees and shrubs. Structures include all the contributing structures in the district, including roads, trails, retaining walls, etc. Buildings are defined as structures intended to shelter a human activity. No archeological resources have been considered in this survey. HISTORIC DISTRICT OVERALL Spatial Organization