Grand Canyon Inn & National Park Headquarters, Log Cabin, Santa Fe River, North Rim, intersection of Canyon & Cerro Gordo Roads, Grand Canyon

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS AZ-144-D. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

With its notched corners, this cabin is part of the inexpensive "rustic" architecture intended, without highly stylized or sophisticated design or expensive materials, to replace the original tent camp with a more substantial yet still low cost tourist facility. Prepared By: John P. White

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS AZ-144-D. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Project prepared in under the direction of the National Park Service, Western Region, Marjorie Baer, historian. The team comprised project supervisor John P. White (Associate Professor of Architecture, Texas Tech University), architects Linda Kay Heinrich and Paula Beth Miller (Virginia Tech), and student architect Deborah Rehn Hurst (Washington University, St. Louis). Richard Frear was photographer. Grand Canyon Inn & National Park Headquarters, Log Cabin HABS No. AZ-144-D (Page 2)

Historical Information

Built in this log cabin is part of the inexpensive "rustic" architecture intended to replace the original tent camp with a more substantial yet still low cost tourist facility. II. ARCHITECTURAL INFORMATION A. General Statement: 1. Architectural Merit and Interest: These native log structures on native limestone foundations harmonize with the Kaibab forest in which they stand. 2. Condition of Fabric: Good. B. Description of Exterior: 1. Overall dimensions: This one-bay front, one-story cabin is rectangular and approximately thirteen feet by twenty-seven feet. 2. Foundation: Native Kaibab Limestone forming a watertable around the perimeter. There are two decorative cast-iron foundation vents on each side. Wooden pier and beam foundation extends from each side through the center. 3.

Wall construction, finish, color: Peeled logs, with notched comers, projecting approximately one foot beyond the wall, each way. Joints between logs chinked with lime and sand mortar on diamond-patterned metal lath. Near the center of each long side there are logs projecting through the wall at a cross partition. A small projection on one side, housing a water heater, has half-log siding with lime mortar chinking. 4. Structural system, framing: Load-bearing log walls, with log rafters, ridge pole and tie beams. 5. Porches, stoops, bulkheads, etc: There is a stone stoop at each doorway with stone steps, the number varying with the slope of the land. 6.

Chimneys: There are two cement-asbestos flues, with metal raincaps, extending through the roof on the long side of the gable, approximately near the center. A similar flue extends through the roof from the projecting water heater room, on the opposite side of the building. 7. Openings: a. Doorways and doors: The principal entrance is in the center on each end Grand Canyon Inn & National Park Headquarters, Log Cabin HABS No. AZ-144-D (Page 3) of building. Each doorway has wooden surrounds, wooden sill and threshold and a wooden board door, flush on the exterior with a wide frame and diagonal brace on the interior. b. Windows and shutters: The principal windows have double, six-light, outswinging wooden casement sashes, with wooden framed screening on the interior.

The exterior sash is painted dark green. The bathroom has a single-light wooden hopper sash with wooden-framed screen. 8. Roof: a. Shapes, covering: The gable roof is covered with wooden shingles, painted green. b. Cornice, eaves: The open eaves have the log rafter ends exposed. C. Description of Interior: 1. Floor plan: An entrance, in the center of each end, opens into a bedroom on one end and a kitchen on the other end. Each room is the width of the cabin. There is a double window on each side of each room, approximately in the center of the wall. There is a small alcove on one side, which has an open space heater in it. A doorway in the center, opposite the entrance leads into a small hallway. On one side of the hallway there is a doorway leading to the bathroom.

The bathroom has a window on the exterior wall, and in the outside comer, there is a shower stall. An addition on the exterior of the bathroom houses the hot water heater, accessible through a wooden panel on the exterior. The two rooms connect through the hallway. In one room, there is a lavatory on the wall, next to the bathroom. The bathroom and hallway have a flat, lowered ceiling, while the two main rooms have gabled ceilings. 2. Flooring: Narrow wooden boards, covered with carpet and sheet vinyl. 1. Walls and ceiling finish: Walls in the two main rooms have exposed, peeled logs with horizontal, wide-board, beaded planks on the bathroom wall, with narrow comer boards. Ceilings in the rooms have exposed log structure with wooden boarding sheathing, stained dark brown.

The walls and ceilings in the bathroom are gypsum board, painted white. There is white ceramic tile inside the metal shower stall. 2. Doorways and doors: The doorways into the hallway and bathroom have wooden surrounds and wooden panel doors. The doors are flush-faced on one side and are made of the same wide-board beaded wall paneling, turned vertically. Grand Canyon Inn & National Park Headquarters, Log Cabin HABS No. AZ-144-D (Page 4) 3. Mechanical equipment: a. Heating: Columnar, propane-gas-fired space heater in each main room. b. Plumbing: Modern plumbing fixtures. c. Lighting: Modern lighting fixtures. D. Site 1. General setting and orientation: Each cabin is predominantly oriented in a north-south direction along the horizontal axis.

The cabins, of relatively close proximity, are approximately two hundred feet west of the inn. There is an asphalt-paved loop road around the cabins. Across the road on the north are the frame cabins. There are numerous ponderosa pine, fir and aspen trees surrounding the cabins. There are ten of these cabins.