![Glacier Park Lodge Lobby MT1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Glacier_Park_Lodge_Lobby_MT1.jpg)
Glacier Park Lodge is located just outside the boundaries of
Glacier National Park in the village of
East Glacier Park,
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. The lodge was built in 1913 by the
Glacier Park Company, a subsidiary of the
Great Northern Railway. It was the first of a series of hotels built in and near Glacier National Park by the Great Northern to house visitors brought to the park by the railroad.
History
Louis W. Hill
Louis Warren Hill (May 19, 1872– April 27, 1948), was an American railroad executive. He was the president and board chairman of the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains, and Pa ...
, President of the
Great Northern Railway and son of
James J. Hill
James Jerome Hill (September 16, 1838 – May 29, 1916) was a Canadian-American railroad director. He was the chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwes ...
developed the Glacier Park lodges as part of his plan to upgrade Great Northern passenger services and compete more effectively with the rival
Northern Pacific Northern Pacific may refer to:
* Northern Pacific Airways, an upcoming airline
* Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference, an NCAA Division I conference
* Northern Pacific Hockey League, an American Tier III junior ice hockey league
* Northern Pac ...
and
Union Pacific
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...
Railroads, whose proximity to Yellowstone National Park provided a major attraction for tourists along those routes.
[ Hill lobbied Congress for the designation of national park status for Glacier Park, which they approved in 1910. The railroad then began building Glacier Park Lodge, the first of several Great Northern lodges in the Park. Hill marketed the Park as an "American Alps," and many of the facilities were developed like Swiss alpine hotels.
The lodge is located at the foot of the ]Rocky Mountain Front
The Rocky Mountain Front is a somewhat unified geologic and ecosystem area in North America where the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains meet the plains. In 1983, the Bureau of Land Management called the Rocky Mountain Front "a nationally signif ...
, where the Great Northern begins its climb over the Lewis Range
The Lewis Range is a mountain range located in the Rocky Mountains of northern Montana, United States and extreme southern Alberta, Canada. It was formed as a result of the Lewis Overthrust, a geologic thrust fault resulted in the overlying of ...
via Marias Pass
Marias Pass (elevation ) is a mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains in the western US state of Montana. Lying on the southern border of
Glacier National Park, it is traversed by US Highway 2 and by the BNSF Hi-Line Subdivision.
The pass is the ...
from the east. This was a natural stopping place for visitors to Glacier. The lodge was sited directly opposite the railroad depot, within walking distance. Work began in April 1912 and was completed in 15 months. Demand was so great that work began immediately on an expansion that almost doubled capacity, completed in 1914.
Design
The Great Northern commissioned Samuel L. Bartlett of St. Paul, Minnesota as the architect for the Glacier Park Lodge, but Hill controlled every major aspect of the design, having temporarily stepped down from the presidency of the Great Northern to oversee the Glacier hotel projects. Hill bought of land belonging to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation
The Blackfeet Nation ( bla, Aamsskáápipikani, script=Latn, ), officially named the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, is a federally recognized tribe of Siksikaitsitapi people with an Indian reservation in Mon ...
at what was then known as Midvale after a special act of Congress in 1912 granted him negotiating rights. The Lodge was based on the Forestry Building at the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition
The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, commonly also known as the Lewis and Clark Exposition, and officially known as the Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair, was a worldwide exposition held in Portlan ...
in Portland, Oregon. Both Hill and his father had admired the forestry building and duplicated its grand hall with a high log colonnade, each log with its bark still attached.
Glacier Park Lodge was intended to be a signature building. The lodge is built around a three-story lobby measuring by , lined with Douglas-fir
The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...
columns 40 feet (12 m) tall and between 36 and 42 inches (91 to 106 cm) in diameter. Each column was brought in by rail from the Pacific Northwest because trees in Montana rarely grow so large. A total of 60 such trees were used, with Douglas-fir in the lobby and cedars for the exterior. The logs in the main hall are detailed with smaller logs at their tops to resemble the Ionic order. The lodge was loosely styled as a Swiss chalet
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
*Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
*Swiss, North Carolina
* Swiss, West Virginia
*Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
* Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internationa ...
akin to other lodges built by the Great Northern between 1913 and 1917. The original structure contained 61 guest rooms, the lobby and the dining room. The addition housed another 111 guests.[
]
Construction and arrangement
The huge timber for the hotel arrived at the site by rail in April 1912, specially cut before the sap had risen in the trees to ensure that the bark stayed attached. The contractor was Evensta & Company of Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
, who used a siding from the main line to deliver the materials directly to the site. Hill chose the decor and accessories. Over time most of the furnishings have disappeared and the lobby floor has been rearranged. A lounge on the west side looks out onto the mountains, fronted by an outside veranda. Another lounge is in the basement in a space that once housed a small swimming pool. The addition is a four story structure to the south of the main building, connected by an enclosed breezeway with intimate seating areas. The final cost of the lodge and addition by 1915 was $500,000.[
The exterior of the main lodge features a log-columned portico covered by a shed roof, itself with a long shed dormer. The porch is flanked by projecting gabled bays, with each story projecting beyond the story below, capped by a broad roof with deep eaves in a chalet-like style. The lodge is clad in sawn clapboard siding with log detailing. The addition is of nearly equal size to the main lodge, at a slightly lower elevation. It features projecting bays with three story log balconies, covered by broad hooded gables.][
A nine-hole ]golf course
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". ...
is a part of the lodge complex and was added in 1928, becoming the first golf course in the state of Montana. In 1960 the railroad divested itself of the hotels, selling them to Glacier Park, Inc, then operated by Donald Hummel. Hummel sold the company to the Dial Corporation
Henkel Corporation, doing business as Henkel North American Consumer Goods, and formerly The Dial Corporation, is an American company based in Stamford, Connecticut. It is a manufacturer of personal care and household cleaning products, and is ...
in 1981, which spun off the Viad Corporation
Viad Corp provides experiential leisure travel and face-to-face events in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United Arab Emirates via two divsions: GES and Pursuit.
Pursuit (formed in 2017) includes travel attractio ...
in 1996 as the operating company.[ The lodge is only open during the summer months between late May and the latter half of September.
]Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...
still markets the park as a tourist destination for its ''Empire Builder
The ''Empire Builder'' is an Amtrak long-distance passenger train that operates daily between Chicago and either Seattle or Portland via two sections west of Spokane. Introduced in 1929, it was the flagship passenger train of the Great Northe ...
'' passenger train, and many of Glacier National Park visitors still arrive by train. Once common among many National Park railroad tour destinations, the Glacier Park lodges are among the last with a real railroad connection.
The lodge stands immediately adjacent to the national park on private land. Although it has not been placed on either the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
or the list of National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
s[ despite being clearly eligible, other examples of the ]Great Northern Railway Buildings
The Great Northern Railway Buildings are a set of five building complexes in or near Glacier National Park in Montana. They were built by the Great Northern Railway during the period of the park's founding to provide a unified tourist experience ...
such as the Many Glacier Hotel
Many Glacier Hotel is a historic hotel located on the east shore of Swiftcurrent Lake in Glacier National Park in the U.S. state of Montana. The building is designed as a series of chalets, up to four stories tall, and stretches for a substantia ...
have received historic designations.
See also
* Lake McDonald Lodge
The Lake McDonald Lodge is a historic lodge located within Glacier National Park, on the southeast shore of Lake McDonald. The lodge is a -story structure built in 1913 based on Kirtland Cutter's design. The foundation and first floor walls are ...
, the third of the major Glacier hotels, after the Glacier Park Lodge and the Many Glacier Hotel
Many Glacier Hotel is a historic hotel located on the east shore of Swiftcurrent Lake in Glacier National Park in the U.S. state of Montana. The building is designed as a series of chalets, up to four stories tall, and stretches for a substantia ...
.
References
External links
Glacier Park Lodge
website
at the National Park Architecture Society
Book about Louis W. Hill Sr., son and successor of empire builder James J. Hill and major force behind the establishment and development of Glacier National Park.
{{Authority control
Great Northern Railway (U.S.) hotels
Rustic architecture in Montana
Hotels in Montana
Buildings and structures in Glacier County, Montana
Hotels established in 1913
Hotel buildings completed in 1913
Tourist attractions in Glacier County, Montana
1913 establishments in Montana
Swiss Chalet Revival architecture