Village Development
By 1927, the area around the lodge was called "Rim Village" by both visitors and park staff. The National Park Service approved a master plan for development of Rim Village in 1927, and Congress provided funds to begin implementing the plan. The development program was overseen by the National Park Service's Landscape Engineering Division, headed by Thomas C. Vint. Over the next fourteen years, Crater Lake's infrastructure was developed in accordance with the park's master plan. As a result, park buildings from this era reflect a common character consistent with National Park Service's rustic design style.
Rim Village was developed in two phases. The first phase, between 1927 and 1932, included road improvements, new rustic style buildings, a paved strolling path along the rim, and careful landscape plantings. Housekeeping cabins, a general store, a cafeteria, and the Sinnott Memorial Observation Station were all built during this period. These upgrades were accomplished by National Park Service staff and contract labor. The second phase of development, between 1933 and 1941, was accomplished with the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps. During this time, there were two Civilian Conservation Corps camps in the park, with more than four hundred men. The Civilian Conservation Corps worked on facility construction projects, did landscape work, improved existing roads, built new trails, and performed general maintenance throughout the park. Their work on the heavily used Rim Village campground was particularly important. For the first time, the campground was organized around a formal internal circulation plan that controlled the flow of people and automobiles within the campground. In addition, individual camp sites were marked and rustic-style picnic tables, benches, and fireplaces were built. This significantly reduced the impact of visitors on the campground's natural environment.
Development at Rim Village was curtailed during World War II. Maintenance became the primary concern of the park staff, as Civilian Conservation Corps manpower disappeared with the onset of the war. This began a period of decline in Rim Village.
In 1955, the National Park Service implemented a new program to restore park facilities throughout the nation. The program's main thrust was to standardize national park facilities across the country. In Rim Village, some rustic features were replaced or covered over in the effort to modernize park facilities and original landscape elements were altered or removed. Later the Rim Village campground was removed entirely and the site converted into a day-use picnic area. The rustic tables and fireplaces were replaced with more contemporary models.
Despite the changes, the design features of the original master plan still dominate Rim Village. The main buildings, general landscape, pathways, and rim trails remain consistent with the original design. As a result, Rim Village was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 (NRHP #97001155).
Read more about this topic: Rim Village Historic District
Famous quotes containing the words village and/or development:
“The startings and arrivals of the cars are now the epochs in the village day.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Dissonance between family and school, therefore, is not only inevitable in a changing society; it also helps to make children more malleable and responsive to a changing world. By the same token, one could say that absolute homogeneity between family and school would reflect a static, authoritarian society and discourage creative, adaptive development in children.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)