The LeConte Memorial Lodge, now known as the Yosemite Conservation Heritage Center, is a structure in

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

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 territorie ...

. LeConte is spelled variously as Le Conte or as Leconte. Built in 1903 by the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

, it is nearly unique within the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

system as a high-quality example of Tudor Revival architecture, and is an important early expression of the Club's mission. The lodge was declared a

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 ...

in 1987.

History

The LeConte Memorial Lodge was built by the

in 1903 in memory of

Joseph LeConte Joseph Le Conte (alternative spelling: Joseph LeConte) (February 26, 1823 – July 6, 1901) was a physician, geologist, professor at the University of California, Berkeley and early California conservationist. Early life Of Huguenot descent, h ...

, one of the founding members of the Sierra Club, who died in 1901. The

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

4,500 cost to build the Lodge was contributed by students, alumni and faculty from the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

and

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

businesses, and friends and relatives of LeConte. The Sierra Club levied a $1.00 assessment on each of its members to help raise the funds. The Lodge was constructed at the base of

Glacier Point Glacier Point is a viewpoint above Yosemite Valley in the U.S. state of California. It is located on the south wall of Yosemite Valley at an elevation of , above Curry Village. The point offers a superb view of several of Yosemite National Park ...

Curry Village Curry Village is a resort in Mariposa County, California in Yosemite National Park within the Yosemite Valley. A rockfall in 2008 damaged a number of structures, and about one third of visitor units were closed because of risk. In 2012, eight v ...

and was dedicated on July 3, 1904. In 1919, the lodge was moved west in the Yosemite Valley to its current location across from Housekeeping Camp. For four years from 1920,

Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advoca ...

served as the lodge's summer custodian. In 2016 the lodge was renamed "Yosemite Conservation Heritage Center" at the request of the Sierra Club, after consideration of writings by Joseph LeConte about white superiority.

Design

Architect John White designed the Lodge. The design was influenced by his brother-in-law,

Bernard Maybeck Bernard Ralph Maybeck (February 7, 1862 – October 3, 1957) was an American architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He was an instructor at University of California, Berkeley. Most of his major buildings were in ...

. White's design reflected the vertical nature, color and texture of Yosemite Valley by featuring a steep, pitched roof, rough-hewn granite stone walls and exposed beams. The lodge's initial construction predates the National Park Service's later emphasis on rustic construction, and marks a transition from formal European design prototypes to a design philosophy more aligned with locale and native building materials. The Lodge served as the first visitors center in Yosemite Valley. Today, the Center is owned by the National Park Service and is operated by the Sierra Club as a conservation and natural history library, with a children's library and with exhibits on the Sierra Club and Yosemite National Park, and serves as a lecture hall providing evening programs on weekends from May through September.

Description

The

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

lodge is built of rough-shaped granite in a rough-coursed

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

pattern, unlike most stone park structures which were built using rubble coursing. The Y-shaped building, set at the base of a cliff, is entered by a small porch at the center of the Y. A steeply pitched gable roof is defined at the ends with parapets. The small wings have substantially lower height. The roof is supported by exposed hammer beams that in turn support

scissors truss A scissors truss is a kind of truss used primarily in buildings, in which the bottom chord members cross each other, connecting to the angled top chords at a point intermediate on the top chords' length, creating an appearance similar to an opened ...

es. The interior is divided into three rooms, with a main meeting room in the base of the Y and two smaller rooms in the angled arms. The main meeting room has two levels, with an intimate lower section next to the fireplace opposite the entrance. Despite the "lodge" in its original name, the Yosemite Conservation Heritage Center does not provide accommodations. Open from May 1 through September 30, Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 am until 4:00, the Sierra Club, its curator, and staff of volunteers welcome all visitors to Yosemite National Park.

References

External links

Sierra Club - LeConte Memorial Lodge
* Sierra Club
Yosemite Conservation Heritage Center
at National Park Service. {{DEFAULTSORT:Leconte Memorial Lodge Libraries in California Sierra Club Buildings and structures completed in 1903 National Historic Landmarks in California National Register of Historic Places in Mariposa County, California National Register of Historic Places in Yosemite National Park Tourist attractions in Mariposa County, California Tudor Revival architecture in California Rustic architecture in California 1903 establishments in California Park buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in California