Architecture
To design the cabins at Rapidan Camp, Lou Henry Hoover hired an architect who had built Girl Scout camps. The facilities were extremely rustic by modern standards. Some of the early structures such as the original Five Tents had just a wooden floor and 3-foot-high (0.91 m) walls, with canvas tents above. Even the President's Cabin was built with single-wall uninsulated construction—slats of German Siding nailed to studs and exposed on both sides. There are no interior ceilings; rafters and roof boards are exposed. Shower stalls have tin walls and concrete floors. During Hoover's administration, cabin porches were decorated with boxes filled with geraniums, and interior floors were covered with grass rugs. The camp was modified throughout Hoover's presidency with new cabins and additions to existing cabins.
On cold days, large stone fireplaces provide some warmth, but were not intended to keep the camp warm in winter. There was never a shortage of firewood in Hoover's day because the chestnut blight had ravaged the forest; after her first visit to the Rapidan area, Mrs. Hoover had written "There are innumerable, enormous dead chestnuts standing all over the place."
On hot days, hinged wooden panels fold down to expose large copper screens to provide a great deal of ventilation. These panels and numerous windows cover most of the outside perimeter of the cabins. From the 1960s through 1980s, they hardly seemed necessary, for the hemlock trees formed a thick canopy and kept the shaded grounds cool. However, in the early 1990s, the hemlock woolly adelgid began destroying the hemlock trees, so the surrounding forest is again scattered with dead and fallen trees as in Hoover's day.
The cabins are equipped with electricity and plumbing, with visible wiring snaking along the walls and rafters. Large elevated outdoor decks were built with holes for the trunks of mature live trees, whose branches sheltered the cabins and porches.
A replica of a corner of the President's cabin and surrounding deck is located inside the Hoover Presidential Library in Iowa.
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