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Overview

Opened in the spring of 1906, the National Park Inn #1 was the first commission executed in WA State by the CO architect Harlan Thomas. After completing it, Thomas shifted his office from Denver to Seattle. The National Park Inn functioned for twenty years before burning in a fire.

Building History

The US Congress established Mount Rainier National Park in 1899. The park's creation spurred commercial activity in nearby Tacoma and Seattle. A local railroad, the Tacoma Eastern Railroad, begun as a narrow-gauge line in 1891, went bankrupt following the 1893 Depression, and was relaunched by a MI lumberman named John Bagley (1852-1920). Bagley and his investors, principally the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway, hoped to become the prime transportation system for Mount Rainier National Park. It laid tracks between Tacoma and key sites near Mount Rainier including Ashford and Longmire.

Harlan Thomas designed the National Park Inn #1 for Bagley and the Tacoma Eastern Railroad Company. The National Park Inn was to compete with the Longmire Springs Hotel owned by the Longmire Family. James Longmire opened cabins at his Longmire Springs Hotel by 1884, marketing access to the nearby hot springs as a form of restorative therapy. Longmire and his son Elcaine Longmire erected cabins and a rustic, two-story hotel by about 1889. After Elcaine's death, the Longmire Family leased their properties in 1916 to an entity called the "Longmire Springs Hotel Company." This firm erected an additional building, known as the “Annex,” to the Longmire Lodge complex, locating it nearby to the original hotel. By about 1915, investors formed the Rainier National Park Company (RNPC), which was the group responsible for building the Paradise Inn at Ashford, WA. The RNPC purchased all of the hotel properties in Longmire, included the 1889 Londmire Springs Hotel, National Park Inn and its new Annex. It relocated the Annex nearer to the National Park Inn and also built a Clubhouse for the National Park Inn. It eventually demolished the Longmire Springs Hotel, particularly after its hot springs were proven not to contain therapeutic minerals.

In 1926, the original National Park Inn burned. Instead of rebuilding, the RNPC renamed the existing Annex the second National Park Inn. The Clubhouse would later become a gift shop for the inn complex. An article in the Tacoma News Tribune of 06/10/1926 stated: “‘It is too early to announce any plans for reconstruction of the inn at Longmire,’ said Henry A. Rhodes, president of the National Park Co., Thursday, ‘but I can say that our regular travel service, incident to the formal opening of the park next Tuesday, will be maintained without impairment. Mr. Rhodes called attention to the housing facilities of the annex, the numerous bungalow-tents owned by the inn, and the fact that dining-room service has been continued as usual, being effected only in a slight way by the change to the annex.” (See "Rush Remodeling of Annex at Longmire," Tacoma News Tribune, 06/10/1926, p. 1.)

The Longmire Family sold its holdings in the area to the National Park Service in 1939. (See National Park Service.gov, "The National Park Inn," accessed 11/04/2024.)

Demolition

The original hotel was burned in a fire that started about 8:00 am on 06/09/1926. The hotel was insured for about $25,000.

PCAD id: 13472