Rangers' Club
Encyclopedia
The Rangers' Club is a building in Yosemite Valley
in Yosemite National Park
that was donated by the independently wealthy first director of the National Park Service
, Stephen Tyng Mather
. He intended it to be used by the newly hired park rangers who were taking over from the departing army troops. He specifically intended it to blend into the natural environment. Its use of rustic
stylings was part of a trend to the use of rustic design and natural materials in Park Service buildings until the 1940s.
. Construction was completed in August 1924, at a cost to Mather of $39,380. The Rangers' Club was intended to foster a sense of esprit de corps among the newly-create ranger service. Mather hoped that the example at Yosemite would encourage Congress to appropriate money to build similar facilities at other national parks, a vain hope. The Rangers' Club was the first significant structure on the north side of the Yosemite Valley, part of a Mather strategy to relocate park services.
The interior arrangement has not been substantially altered. The first floor features a living room and dining room connected by a hallway, which itself features nooks furnished with bookshelf-partitions on its north and south sides, featuring decorative fir tree designs. Columns and beams are dressed and trimmed, with rough-hewn ceiling joists supporting diagonal ceiling sheathing. Downstairs interior spaces are finished in plaster with dark wood wainscoting. The building's original furnishings remain in the living and dining rooms. Upstairs a central hall runs to the ends of the wings, flanked by individual and dormitory rooms. The building's kitchen and bathrooms have been updated, and the partial basement contains mechanical equipment.
An adjoining L-shaped garage-woodshed and a transformer house are similarly designed, and complement the main building.
The Rangers' Club was declared a National Historic Landmark
in 1987. The building was altered in 2008 to install new earthquake-resistant foundations and other seismic strengthening measures.
Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada mountains of California, carved out by the Merced River. The valley is about long and up to a mile deep, surrounded by high granite summits such as Half Dome and El Capitan, and densely forested with pines...
in Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...
that was donated by the independently wealthy first director of the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
, Stephen Tyng Mather
Stephen Tyng Mather
Stephen Tyng Mather was an American industrialist and conservationist. As the president and owner of the Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company, he became a millionaire...
. He intended it to be used by the newly hired park rangers who were taking over from the departing army troops. He specifically intended it to blend into the natural environment. Its use of rustic
Rustic architecture
Rustic architecture is a style of architecture in the United States, used in rural government and private structures and their landscape interior design. It was influenced by the American craftsman style.-Rustic styles and types:...
stylings was part of a trend to the use of rustic design and natural materials in Park Service buildings until the 1940s.
Concept
The Rangers' Club was designed by San Francisco architect Charles K. SumnerCharles K. Sumner
Charles Kaiser Sumner was an American architect, practicing primarily in California. He was born Charles Sumner Kaiser in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 1874, and studied at the Columbia University School of Architecture. He received a traveling scholarship to Europe and the Middle East and was...
. Construction was completed in August 1924, at a cost to Mather of $39,380. The Rangers' Club was intended to foster a sense of esprit de corps among the newly-create ranger service. Mather hoped that the example at Yosemite would encourage Congress to appropriate money to build similar facilities at other national parks, a vain hope. The Rangers' Club was the first significant structure on the north side of the Yosemite Valley, part of a Mather strategy to relocate park services.
Description
The Rangers' Club is a U-shaped wood frame structure, 2-1/2 stories high, centering on a massive stone chimney in the center of the U. The interior is clad in redwood shingles, with board-and-batten siding on the gable ends. The building rests on a granite rubblestone foundation. Peeled log pilasters emphasize the corners of the frame building, originally extending through the roof. The gable ends feature balconies at the second floor, with jigsaw-pattern railings. The wood shingle roof is steeply pitched with shed roof dormers in the main section and steeply pitched gable dormers on the outer side of the flanking wings.The interior arrangement has not been substantially altered. The first floor features a living room and dining room connected by a hallway, which itself features nooks furnished with bookshelf-partitions on its north and south sides, featuring decorative fir tree designs. Columns and beams are dressed and trimmed, with rough-hewn ceiling joists supporting diagonal ceiling sheathing. Downstairs interior spaces are finished in plaster with dark wood wainscoting. The building's original furnishings remain in the living and dining rooms. Upstairs a central hall runs to the ends of the wings, flanked by individual and dormitory rooms. The building's kitchen and bathrooms have been updated, and the partial basement contains mechanical equipment.
An adjoining L-shaped garage-woodshed and a transformer house are similarly designed, and complement the main building.
The Rangers' Club was declared a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1987. The building was altered in 2008 to install new earthquake-resistant foundations and other seismic strengthening measures.
External links
- Architecture in the Parks: A National Historic Landmark Theme Study: Rangers' Club, by Laura Soullière Harrison, 1986, at National Park Service.
- Rangers' Club at Yosemite National Park
- Yosemite Nature Notes - Episode 13 - Rangers' Club