Notes:
Notes:
"The Wawona Hotel is a complex of seven structures built on the upper edge of a large meadow in the southwestern corner of Yosemite National Park. The buildings are laid out in a relatively formal pattern on the edge of a rolling hill overlooking the meadow. The front elevation of the main hotel building runs north-south. A circular drive with a centered fountain leads up to the hotel. The exterior walls of the structures, to the northwest, east, south, and southwest of the main hotel building, are all aligned with the cardinal directions, contributing to a Victorian formality. The area of Wawona, an Indian term for "Big Trees," became part of Yosemite National Park in 1932. The buildings were constructed over several decades, beginning as a development at a stage stop on a passenger and freight line. The first building of the present development to be constructed was "Long White" or Clark Cottage built in 1876. A fire in 1878 destroyed the rest of the original stage stop buildings, but Long White remained and became the anchor for the new Wawona Hotel group. The main hotel building opened in 1879. The "Little White" or manager's residence was complete in 1884. Landscape painter Thomas Hill's studio was finished in 1886 adjacent to the main hotel structure. The "Little Brown" or Moore cottage took its place east of the main hotel building in 1894. The "Long Brown or Washburn cottage may have been completed in 1899, although the exact date of its construction remains open to question. The Annex was completed in 1918. Three more buildings were constructed to augment hotel facilities (including a store and an employee dormitory) in 1920, but none is extant today. The buildings of the hotel complex have a number of features in common. They are all of wood-frame construction with painted exterior finishes. They are all more than one story in height with multiple exterior porches or verandas and some decorative woodwork. All have undergone certain changes in recent years to improve the quality of the seasonally-offered guest services and to make the structures safer for occupancy. Cosmetic finishes such as paint, wallpaper, and carpeting over the original floor materials, have all been updated. Most of the bathrooms have new fixtures. Sprinkler systems and baseboard heaters have been added. New shakes were put on the roofs in recent years. Many of the furnishings throughout the hotel are period pieces but are not original to the structures. These period pieces are not included in this landmark nomination. Any original remaining furniture, light fixtures, or paintings are included. The Long White or Clark Cottage, completed in 1876, is a wood building with a balloon frame. The one-and-one-half-story building, rectangular in plan, has an exterior siding of weatherboards finished at the corners with cornerboards. The gable roof and multiple dormers are finished with wood shakes. The veranda surrounding the building is sheltered by a skirt roof supported by chamfered posts with curvilinear brackets. A railing with diagonal cross pieces encircles the veranda. The railing and the detailing of the eaves' woodwork are elements of a simplified Greek Revival architecture. Most of the windows in the building are six-over-six double hung. The south gable end of the building contains a small shed, constructed between 1890 and 1917 by which time all of the dormers were added. All of the eight guest rooms contain baths, added during the 1940s by decreasing the numbers of original guest rooms. The interiors may contain the original painted ceilings. Room configuration dates from the 1940s; sheetrock covering the 1940s wall partitions dates from the early 1980s. For these reasons only the building's exterior, first-floor ceiling, and 1940s room configuration are included in this nomination. The main building of the Wawona Hotel (1879) is a balloon-frame structure generally T-shaped in plan. The foundation is stone and wooden piers, hidden by a latticework skirt that is in turn covered with vines. Exterior walls are drop-channel siding. A two-story veranda encircles much of the building. The veranda's railing is in a simple geometric pattern of rectangles. The building is sheltered by a hip roof, and a skirt roof wrapping around the building covers the veranda. All of the roofs are finished with wood shakes. An addition at the north end of the building, dating from 1914, contains much of the present dining room and kitchen space. That addition changed the building's plan from an "L" to a "T." The present lobby and expanded dining room date from 1917-1918, when the building's interior was remodelled. The lounge and sitting room south of the lobby also date from that time, as does the lobby configuration with the small office behind the registration desk. The upstairs contains dormitory space for hotel employees. The tall windows in the building are principally four-over-four double hung. The four-panel wood doors that lead out to the veranda have transom lights above. These original doors retain their hardware and have new locks for improved security. The front of the hotel is nearly symmetrical. The main entrance to the hotel is through french doors near the central portion of the veranda. Above the entrance is a fourteen-light fixed transom. The lobby, with its 1917 light fixtures, is a central space with two sitting rooms and guest rooms to the south, and the dining room and small bar to the north. A small staircase to the right of the registration desk has a decorative balustrade and leads upstairs to the dormitory space. French doors lead out from the lobby to a porch at the rear of the building. The sitting rooms contain fireplaces. Windows and interior doors are surrounded by heavy wood moldings, and picture moldings wrap around the upper walls of the rooms. The dining room and bar have hardwood floors. Box beams in the dining room give the ceiling a coffered effect. The lighting fixtures hanging from the ceiling have Giant Sequoia cones woven into their suspending chains and as a decorative fringe around their shades to bring to mind the grove of Big Trees two miles away. The manager's residence, now known as Little White and completed in 1884, is a small L-shaped building with intersecting gable roofs. The veranda that wraps around the building is sheltered by a skirt roof. All of the roofs are finished with wood shakes. The railing around the veranda is simple and consists of two parallel boards connecting the chamfered posts. The windows are four-over-four double hung. The original four-panel doors and their hardware remain, again augmented by new locks. The interior of the building has undergone some renovation. The kitchen of the manager s residence is now bathrooms for the guest rooms. Baseboard heat warms the rooms. At some time in recent years the sprinkler system was added. The building retains its original high ceilings and wood moldings."