Great Lodges of the National Parks
Grand Lodges: The Ahwahnee
Lodge | Setting | Trivia
Lodge
Ironically, one of the West's most sumptuous and exclusive hotels is set amid spectacular public lands.
The driving force behind the hotel was National Park Service Director Stephen Mather. He viewed the Ahwahnee as a way to attract influential guests who could lend support to the national Parks. It was also a ploy to increase visitors in an era when federal funds were directly tied to the number of tourists.
Design
Structurally imposing and visually soaring, the Ahwahnee blends seamlessly into a backdrop of granite cliffs. Six stories tall, with three wings in a y-layout, the hotel offers 99 guestrooms or suites, and 24 bungalows set between the main building and the Merced River.
The décor is both first-class and eclectic, freely (and effectively) mixing California arts and crafts, rustic, and renaissance themes.
Construction
The 150,000-square-foot Ahwahnee was built to resist fire. Instead of using siding and beams of real wood, concrete was formed within milled timbers, and then dyed to resemble redwood. It was done so successfully that guests are still fooled.
In addition to concrete, 1,000 tons of structural steel and 5,000 tons of building stone had to be trucked in to the remote site. Logistical difficulties, ongoing design changes, and a stubborn architect, all contributed to construction delays.
Meanwhile, art historians Phyllis Ackerman and Arthur Pope directed a small army of artisans at work on interior tile, wood, metal and plaster. Pope and Ackerman also selected the Ahwahnee's now-famous kelim and soumak rugs. The last-minute addition of stained glass windows was the work of resident artist Jeannette Dyer Spencer.
The Architect
Educated at Yale and Harvard, Gilbert Stanley Underwood (1890-1960) was already a respected architect when commissioned to design the Ahwahnee in 1925.
Although he developed several Park Service buildings, the Ahwahnee remains his greatest work in the rustic style, which Underwood helped to define.
The architect was greatly influenced by the early California arts and crafts movement, applying its basic concepts to his Ahwahnee design and choice of material. The monolithic structure parallels the scale of the setting, but never competes with it. Even the asymmetrical tiers and irregular rooflines were carefully planned to provide shadows and textures that merge with the environment.
Underwood balanced the hotel's rough exterior with sophisticated interior spaces for the enjoyment of Ahwahnee's world-class clientele.
Visitors
Intended to attract patrons to the National Park System, the Ahwahnee has succeeded in every respect since opening night, July 14, 1927. Among the political and powerful: Herbert Hoover, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan were all guests.
Other marquee names on the hotel register included: Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Judy Garland, Jack Benny, Walt Disney, and more recently, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.
A number of foreign leaders have also sojourned at the Ahwahnee, including England's Queen Elizabeth. A few guest suites have even acquired the names of their famous occupants.
Never a guest, Ansel Adams was a frequent visitor in the hotel's early decades. The famed photographer was also a trained classical pianist, and he used the hotel's piano for impromptu recitals.