This Hotel in Oregon was used for the exterior shots in the filming of The Shining
Timberline Lodge, Government Camp Oregon
Widely regarded as the finest example of 1930's "mountain architecture," Timberline Lodge is sited on the south slope of Mt. Hood. Conceived by the Federal Works Progress Administration the structure is a remarkable example of the WPA ideal at its best; artists and craftsmen, builders and architects working to create a major building, beautifully appointed. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Lodge on September 28th, 1937.
Timberline Lodge was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1935 and completed in 1938.
Timberline Lodge was sponsored by the Forest Service Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, built by Works Progress Administration labor and financed by Federal appropriations combined with locally subscribed private contributions which were raised by the Mount Hood Development Association, a non-profit organization.
Work on the six-and-a-half-mile road which leads from Mount Hood Loop Highway to the lodge began on February 15th, 1936. President Franklin D. Roosevelt formally dedicated the building on September 28th, 1937, in a ceremony that was broadcast from coast to coast by radio. The building was described as "a monument to the skill and faithful performance of workers on the rolls of the Works Progress Administration." The lodge was formally opened to the public on February 4th, 1938.
Some idea of the magnitude of the project may be obtained from the fact that it required 760,000 man-hours of labor and $230,000 worth of materials. Timberline Lodge is unusual not only because of its lavish use of indigenous materials but also because of the wide scope it gave to the creative and inventive talents of native artists and craftsmen.
Until Timberline Lodge was built, America had no widely known distinctive mountain architecture of its own corresponding to the alpine architecture of Europe. In designing Timberline, architects of the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Treasury modernized the chalet mode of architecture. Making use of native materials and dubbed "Cascadian," the new style seemed well-suited from a practical as well as an aesthetic viewpoint, to the elemental ruggedness of mountain country.
In 1927, Francis E. Williamson, Jr. of the U.S. Forest Service developed a recreation plan for the south slope of Mount Hood. The plan called for a "lodge at the timberline" but it was not until John Yeon, a Portland Architect, convinced E.J. Griffith, who was to become head of the Works Progress Administration in Oregon, of the need for a lodge that the lodge became a reality. The U.S. Forest Service outlined a program of development that included federal ownership and control with individual and public use. For a long time, however, activity was delayed by lack of funds. Griffith persuaded Washington officials that a lodge would enhance recreational facilities while providing a boost to the local economy. Money was made available through public subscription and the Works Progress Administration, and the Mount Hood Timberline Lodge emerged. Congress approved $275,513 for the project. This authorization proved insufficient. The amount expended reached nearly one million dollars.
The Works Progress Administration asked its writing personnel to put into words the spirit of nature, to review the folklore of primitive man, and to present the rich pioneer history connected with the country. Numerous historic and scenic pictures were furnished. Gilbert Stanley Underwood and Company of California and Forest Service architects studied the submitted material and carefully considered each physical detail of the lofty terrain surrounding the building site.
In orienting the lodge, or in arranging the exposure of its two wings, the architects were determined that not only should all beauty in the region be preserved but that it should be made to appear a natural setting for a building appropriate to the scene and that the decorations should suggest the forest creatures, the Indians, and the pioneers who hewed out Barlow Pass.
Having in mind the natural setting, ethnology, history of the region, the requirements of utility, and availability to the greatest number of people, the designers transformed the words of the writers into plans and specifications. Built on a slope 6000 feet above the sea, Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood was designed on a magnificent scale, yet it is so integrated with the contour of the land that it neither dwarfs the trees nor competes with the mountain. Two wings lead from the central hexagonal unit which roughly simulates the mountain peak, the main entrance being in line with and due south of the summit. The Works Progress Administration possibly found its highest expression in the construction of Timberline Lodge for it used the greatest variety of labor found on any project in Oregon, if not in the United States. Skilled workmen and those who benefited from on-the-job training, representatives of all the arts and many of the professions, found employment. Creative genius, frequently thwarted during the Depression by the necessity of earning a living in other fields, found a medium.
Timberline Lodge remains today an expression of man's artistic skill and zeal in a pioneering movement. It was, upon completion, the major winter recreational center in Oregon, and it continues to maintain a leading position.
Building Description
Timberline Lodge was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1935 and completed in 1938. It was dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Sept. 28th, 1937.
The Lodge, situated at the 6,000 foot level on the south slope of Mt. Hood, is a massive wooden structure 360 feet long from the extremity of the wings, and covers 40,000 usable square feet in area. Construction materials of wood and stone were entirely native to Oregon.
Three general themes have been used throughout the building; pioneer motifs, Indian motifs, and general wildlife and plant life found within the State of Oregon. The themes with a new and indigenous architectural style were original and individual enough to earn the name "Cascadian". Timberline Lodge architects were W. I. Turner, Linn Forrest, and Dean Wright. The interior decorator for the project was Marjorie Hoffman Smith.
The Lodge exterior is two wings, one long, one short, which branch at different levels from a hexagonal center unit whose roof rises high to a weather vane topped cupola. The steep roofs of the wings are broken by a series of dormers for the third floor rooms. Rubble masonry, uncut boulders from Mt. Hood (11,000 pounds a running foot), was laid from the foundation to the first floor level. Heavy timber construction from there to the steep pitched roof is covered with Oregon cedar shakes laid ten inches to the weather. Fifty foot rafters support the 53 degree roof and are 34 feet above the wall level at its peak. The siding is vertical boards and batts of rough sawed lumber two inches thick. A heavy stone balcony makes up the main entrance to the Lodge. Framing this entrance is a massive architrave composed of Douglas-fir columns and a lintel. Near the top of each column is a hand carved mountain rams head further embellished by intaglio carvings.
The Works Progress Administration planners utilized as many different crafts as possible in the Lodge construction and decor. Fine examples of leather, metal, wood, weaving, painting, writing, photography, stone cutting, and masonry can be found within the Lodge.
The major areas within the Lodge consist of the following: Ski Lounge, Ski Grille, Blue Ox Bar, Gift Shop, Main Lounge and its balcony, Dining Room and Guest Rooms. Each of these areas is distinctive in its own right following the Cascadian themes. For example, the predominant features of the Main Lounge are all hexagonal; the shape of the room, the 96 foot high fireplace, tables, and the hand carved six sided Ponderosa pine trees forming the wooden corner posts. The massive hexagonal light fixtures that hang from the ceiling represent Indian storage baskets. Other art forms are throughout the interior. The Cascade Dining Room entrance is made of massive iron gates which weigh 500 pounds apiece and are fitted together without the use of welding. Hand carved newel posts made of old telephone poles portray Pacific Northwest animals, relief panels of redwood, fire andirons made of railroad tracks, and over 133 oil and water color paintings express the Cascadian themes created by the outstanding artisans of the 1930s.
Elaboration
It is exactly three and six-tenths miles from Timberline Lodge to the summit of Mount Hood by trail.
From ground to first floor level, the exterior walls are of heavy rubble masonry-uncut boulders from the mountainside. Above the first floor level the walls are of heavy timber construction to the eaves. The roof, pitched at an acute angle to prevent too great an accumulation of snow, is shingled with Oregon-manufactured cedar shakes laid ten inches to the weather. A number of hipped and shed roofed dormer windows break the roof line.
The central section of the building, hexagonal in shape and sixty feet in diameter, is culminated by a six-sided stone chimney stack topped by a weather vane. Flanking this section, which is known as the Head House, are two win the longer one to the west, the other southeast. The huge central chimney of the Head House is ninety-two feet in height and fourteen feet in diameter at its base. Actually six distinct chimneys in one, this shaft carries smoke from six fireplaces, three in the ski lounge and three in the main lounge. Each fireplace opening is seven feet high and five feet wide.
Woods used in building and finishing Timberline Lodge include red cedar, Port Orford cedar, Douglas Fir, Ponderosa pine, oak, Western juniper, and hemlock. All of these woods were grown in Oregon, many of them within a short distance of the lodge. Approximately 13,000 square yards of Stayton stone were hauled to the site and used for terrace paving and fireplace hearths.
Across the front of the Head House at main-floor level is a wide, uncovered terrace with a low rail and with steps at either end all built of native stone. The main entrance opens on this terrace.
Framing the main entrance is a massive architrave composed principally of two Douglas fir columns and a lintel of the same material. Near the top of each vertical column is a hand carved mountain ram's head. Vertical columns and lintel are further embellished by carvings that represent, in native Indian symbolism, "everlasting life and abundance."
The main door is five feet wide by ten feet high and weighs a thousand pounds. It is made of hand-adzed Ponderosa pine, and its ornate hinges, knocker, latch, escutcheons and metal trim are of hand-forged iron. The planks that form the door weigh six hundred pounds, and the hardware four hundred.
In the Head House are the ski lounge, and main lounge balcony. The ski lounge is on the ground floor; the main lounge and main lounge balcony on the first and second floor respectively. The building's principal entrance is on main lounge, or first floor level.
The west wing is given over entirely to guest rooms and dormitories. Th east wing has a ski grill on the ground floor; the dining room on the first floor, with kitchen and service rooms beyond; guest rooms on the balcony level; and in the sub-basement the boiler room, workshop and ice machine.
From the courtyard an arched doorway leads through a stone-walled corridor beneath the terrace into the ski lounge. This room occupies the entire ground-floor level of the Head House. The floor is cement, the walls are of rock gathered from the slopes of Mount Hood, and its low ceiling features massive cross-beams of Ponderosa pine. Dominating the room is a huge, six-sided, central chimney. Three fireplaces, on alternate faces of the stone hexagon, cast warmth into the far corners of the room. The furniture is in keeping; tables and benches made of great pine slabs, and hand-forged wrought iron chairs with woven rawhide seats.
The main lounge occupies the first-floor level of the Head House. Here also three huge fireplaces, on alternate faces of the hexagonal central chimney, create an atmosphere of comfort and intimacy. They are equipped with andirons wrought out of rail-road rails and with sliding curtain screens of intermeshed chain. The main lounge floor is of random width oak, jointed and held in place by counter-sunk screws, the heads of which are concealed by oak plugs to simulate full dowelled joints. Walls and ceilings are of pine. A stairway which rises from the main lounge to main lounge balcony has treads of solid Douglas fir timbers. Six massive Ponderosa pine timbers rise from the main lounge to support the main lounge balcony and cross-members of the roof. These timbers, like the central chimney hexagonal in form, are forty-two inches in diameter and forty feet in height, and weigh approximately seven tons each.
A stairway with hand-carved rails and balusters leads up to the wide balcony that circles the main lounge. There are several writing-nooks, equipped with natural pine desks and benches, on the balcony. Two plate-glass observation windows, seven by eleven feet in size, frame vistas of Mount Hood to the north, of Mount Jefferson and other lofty peaks of the Cascade range to the south. Easel paintings also decorate the balcony wall.
During the Depression the Federal Art Project and the allied activities of the W.P.A. greatly stimulated the arts and crafts. Timberline Lodge is Oregon's case in point. The artists and craftsmen who decorated and outfitted Timberline Lodge used Indian legend, pioneer experiences, and the flora and fauna of the region.
In the guest rooms and corridors hang watercolor studies of the wildflowers that grow in the Mount Hood region. These watercolors, 130 in all, depict thirty-seven different varieties of mountain flowers, trees, grasses and leaves. From the original paintings, thirty-five lithographic reproductions have been made.
On the east wall of the main lounge balcony are two oil paintings - one by C.S. Price entitled "Landscape," and the other entitled "The Mountain" by Charles Heaney. On the opposite wall of the balcony are two oils by Darrel Austin entitled "Musicians" and "Dishwashers." A pastoral by C.S. Price entitled "Plowing" hangs in the main dining room. In the speaker's alcove of the ski lounge are two oil murals by Howard Sewall that symbolize the lodge's builders.
Resourceful use of materials at hand is exemplified in the numerous hand-carved newel posts found throughout the building. These posts were salvaged from discarded, cedar telephone poles. This material was chosen for the purpose because it was well seasoned and weathered and because its grain and texture responded readily to the tools of the carver. Surmounting many of the posts, and carved from the posts themselves, are animals; badgers, beavers, bears, and others native to the lodge surroundings. The newel posts, designed by Florence Thomas and Ray Neufer, were executed by the woodcarvers of the Federal Art Project.
Particularly notable is the lodge's display of metalcraft. There are 181 pieces of ornamental wrought-iron, including aridirons, lighting fixtures, window grilles, smoking stands, footscrapers at the entrances, and chair and bench supports.
With warp of Oregon flax and weft of Oregon wool, 136 yards of curtain material were woven by hand for use in the dining room. Hand woven also were 312 yards of material made into 52 bedspreads, and 564 additional yards required to upholster the chairs, benches, couches and stools of the guest rooms and main lounge.
There were 119 hooked rugs in the lodge, showing 36 different designs, in 45 color combinations. They were made of scraps of cuttings salvaged from Works Progress Administration sewing units and of discarded uniforms and blankets from CCC camps. These Timberline fabrics are all gone due to age, abuse and vandalism. The lodge furniture is made entirely of native woods. In the main lounge, it is of oak, supplemented by strap iron. All other rooms have furniture mainly of fir.
The Forest Service leased Timerline Lodge to a private firm which mis-managed the Lodge, allowing it to fall in near shambles. The RLK Company restored the lodge and revitalized the recreational trade. Business is currently good but the need for additional space and facilities has caused the RLK Company to contract for design of a new wing on the northeast corner of the building. A third wing had actually been projected by the original designers, but never executed.
Lodge
One of America's pioneer ski areas, Timberline Lodge is located at the 6,000-foot level on the south slope of Mt. Hood, 60 miles east of Portland, six miles by paved road off U. S. Highway 20. Ski facilities include three double chair lifts, two rope tows and two portable pomalifts. Two 20-passenger snow tractors take skiers and sightseers to the 10,000-foot level summer or winter for skiing or snow play. The lodge has excellent accommodations, a ski shop, gift shop, cafeteria and dining room as well as an all-weather swimming pool (1965)
A view to the south on a clear winter day from Timberline Lodge in the Mount Hood Recreation Area, shows Mt. Jefferson's majestic grandeur among the Cascade peaks. The lodge, located at the 6000 foot level, is the hub of winter sport activities which may be enjoyed practically all year around (1962)
Timberline Lodge, at the 6,000 foot level on the slopes of Oregon's towering Mt. Hood, 11,245 feet high, is nationally famous for its modern luxurious accommodations. It has become a mecca for visitors throughout the year, with many thousands of snow sports enthusiasts coming to the area during the winter months. From its lofty vantage point, the crest of the Cascade mountains can be seen for many miles, including Mt. Jefferson, Oregon's second highest peak. During the summer, mountain climbers come from afar to climb Hood's precipitous summit. (1973)
A view to the south on a clear winter day from Timberline Lodge in the Mount Hood Recreation Area, shows Mt. Jefferson's majestic grandeur among the Cascade peaks. The lodge, located at the 6000 foot level, is the hub of winter sport activities which may be enjoyed practically all year around. (1973)
Relaxing before the huge fireplace at Timberline Lodge is a favorite apre ski pastime for winter sports enthusiasts at this famed resort on Mt. Hood in Oregon's northern Cascade Mountains. The lodge has lodging, two restaurants, two cocktail lounges, sports shop, year-round open air swimming pool and facilities for skiing ll months of the year, It is located just 60 miles east of Portland, off U. S, Highway 26. (1962)
Drawing of lodge
Facade, or south face, from east end (1970)
South elevation, from west end (1970)
