The Lake McDonald Lodge Coffee Shop is a visitor services building in the Lake McDonald district of Glacier National 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 ...

. The coffee shop was built in 1965 as part of 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 propert ...

Mission 66 Mission 66 was a United States National Park Service ten-year program that was intended to dramatically expand Park Service visitor services by 1966, in time for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Park Service. When the National P ...

program to upgrade visitor facilities, in order to increase visitor dining capacity. Under the Mission 66 projects, visitor facilities were usually comprehensive in nature, providing a range of visitor services. Specialized concession buildings like the Coffee Shop were unusual in Mission 66. It was leased to the Glacier Park Company for operation, in anticipation of the construction of lodging facilities by the company. The Coffee Shop was designed by Burt L. Gewalt of the

Kalispell, Montana Kalispell (, Montana Salish: Ql̓ispé, Kutenai language: kqayaqawakⱡuʔnam) is a city in, and the county seat of, Flathead County, Montana, United States. The 2020 census put Kalispell's population at 24,558. In Montana's northwest region ...

architectural firm of Brinkman and Lenon. Gewalt designed the roofline to echo individual design elements of the nearby

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 ...

, using compatible paint and trim materials. In 2018, the Coffee House was remodeled and reopened as Jammer Joe's, a pizza shop with to-go food. Part of a Glacier Park Red Tour Bus is affixed to the wall. Jammer Joe's is named for a well loved "Jammer", or Red Bus Driver, who gave tours in Glacier Park.

Description

The Coffee House is located a little to the east of the Lake McDonald Lodge, between the Lodge and the

Going-to-the-Sun Road Going-to-the-Sun Road is a scenic mountain road in the Rocky Mountains of the western United States, in Glacier National Park in Montana. The Sun Road, as it is sometimes abbreviated in National Park Service documents, is the only road that trave ...

. The by rectangular one-story shop is set on a small hill, surrounded by a lawn with mature conifers shading the site. The building is clad in white stucco over plywood and battened cedar panels. The roof structure is composed of

glued laminated timber Glued laminated timber, commonly referred to as glulam, is a type of structural engineered wood product constituted by layers of dimensioned lumber, dimensional lumber bonded together with durable, moisture-resistant structural adhesives so that ...

frames on steel columns, supporting a modified

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

. The roof is the building's most significant detail, with clipped ends to echo the main lodge structure, and a louvered roof monitor along the ridge, designed to conceal ventilation equipment in an open roof well. The present monitor has been modified from the original cap structure, which did not cope well with the heavy snow loads at the site. The eaves extend from the building at either end. The stucco panels near the entrance feature metal sculpture designed by Gewalt to express the surrounding mountains. The interior is arranged with the main dining room in the north end, the kitchen in the middle, and the employees' dining room at the south end. A lunch counter was originally located next to the main entrance near the center of the building. The employees' dining room has been converted to office and storage use. Interior finishes were stained cedar batten panels and vinyl asbestos tile, with an open ceiling space. Original light fixtures by A.W. Pistol remain. Gewalt drew his design inspiration from the lodge building and from

Welton Becket Welton David Becket (August 8, 1902 – January 16, 1969) was an American modern architect who designed many buildings in Los Angeles, California. Biography Becket was born in Seattle, Washington and graduated from the University of Washingt ...

's design for the Canyon Village Lodge at

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowst ...

. Gewalt's design has been compared to the "Coffee Shop Modern" style by author Alan Hess, using many of the same structural effects and transparent design elements, as well as conspicuously modern design features. Hess describes Coffee Shop Modern as an offshoot of

Googie architecture Googie architecture ( ) is a type of futurist architecture influenced by car culture, jets, the Atomic Age and the Space Age. It originated in Southern California from the Streamline Moderne architecture of the 1930s, and was popular in th ...

Architects and contractors

Brinkman and Lenon was founded shortly after World War II, continuing after the death of the founding partners in 1961 until the firm was sold to the Architects Design Group in the 1990s. The firm designed the Logan Pass Visitor Center and the Saint Mary Visitor Center, Entrance Station and Checking Stations at the eastern side of the park as well as other structures at West Glacier, Saint Mary and Rising Sun. The shop was built by the Collins Construction Company of Kalispell at a cost of about $107,000.

Master plan

The Coffee Shop was to be the first element in expansion of the Lake McDonald site with additional visitor services. The Mission 66 plan for Lake McDonald in 1955 envisioned the removal of all structures in the area except for the lodge itself and the construction of a series of one and two-story lodging units with 20 to 70 rooms each. These plans were scaled back, and were further reduced after the Great Northern Railway, which at the time owned the Glacier Park Company, objected to the plans as too costly. The Great Northern sold their Glacier Park operations to Glacier Park, Inc., operated by Don Hummell. By 1963 plans had been reduced to the construction of a "grill" at the site.

Historic designation

The Lake McDonald Coffee Shop was listed on 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 ...

on October 14, 2008, before the usual 50-year anniversary requirement for NRHP properties, in recognition of its status as an exceptional example of Mission 66 design. Until its designation it was considered a non-contributing structure in the Lake McDonald Lodge Historic District.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Commercial buildings completed in 1965 Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Montana Mission 66 Coffeehouses and cafés in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Flathead County, Montana 1965 establishments in Montana National Register of Historic Places in Glacier National Park Modern Movement architecture in the United States Restaurants established in 1965 Restaurants on the National Register of Historic Places Restaurants in Montana