NPS-Rustic

First and foremost, Catoctin’s camp buildings are integrally tied to a larger national identity, best reflected in the “rustic style” that became the standard for national park design from its earliest days and later reinterpreted in a modern idiom for the National Park Service’s Mission 66 program. 

Log construction is one of the unique qualities that define Catoctin, but wooden balloon frame construction rendered log construction obsolete in more populous parts of the country by the mid-19th century.

Later in the century, however, log construction was employed in new ways. In the 1870s, wealthy Americans initiated the Great Camp Movement for rustic vacation retreats in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Developers such as William West Durant, who used natural materials, including wood shingles, stone, and log, often with its bark retained to emphasize the rustic style, designed comfortable summer houses and lodges that blended with the natural setting. Durant and other creators of the Rustic style drew upon Swiss chalets, traditional Japanese design, and other sources for simple compositions that were harmonious with nature.

The little noticed movement was a natural outgrowth of a new romanticism about nature resulting in the development of a unique architectural style. Early pioneer and regional building techniques were revived because it was thought that a structure employing native materials blended best with the environment. 

Good, himself, reflected on this in comments that he made in the introduction of his 1938 edition.

Those who have been called on to plan the areas where structural trespass is not a justifiable taboo, have sought to do so with a certain grace. We realize that the undertaking is legitimatized, or not, by harmony or the lack thereof. We learn that harmony is more likely to result from the use of native materials... It is believed that by making the subjects herein widely available for comparative study, the influence engendered by each will merge into a forceful composite to the advancement of park technique. [1]

It was both the unique character of each building established through stylistic nuance and the use of common local materials, as well as the way each building fit into its individual physical setting that created the necessary ‘harmony’ required for building in parks.

Catoctin’s buildings do an outstanding job of conveying this ideal, simultaneously displaying a standardized series of functional types while also displaying individual craft decisions for each structure. It is this latter aspect of the buildings that the Catoctin Style Guide addresses as it is the incredible variety of subtle stylistic differences within and across the building types of Catoctin that is most at risk of change if undocumented.

At Catoctin the development and application of that style came with its own personal evolution as the park was constructed between 1936-1938, with its history of stylistic experimentation directly informing how that style developed. Misty Mount, the first campground completed, has a significant amount of variation in stylistic detail compared to the rest of Catoctin. This includes a cabin that is one log taller, as well as a cabin that is one log shorter than the rest (including those constructed over the subsequent two years, which are uniform). This evidence further suggests that Misty Mount was a testing ground for log cabin construction as builders experimented with different assemblies and detailing within Good’s larger conceptual design.

At Greentop, the case is much different, with  more uniform massing, construction, and stylistic detail throughout. Again, the historical record may provide some explanation. Misty Mount was originally intended for the MLCC, but, after one summer, users found the terrain to be unsuitable, initiating planning for the more-accessible Greentop. This time, after a year of “experimentation” at Misty Mount and with a concerted mission to provide safe, accessible spaces, the design process was standardized. At Greentop, clear stylistic decisions were made that led to a harmony of design largely absent from Misty Mount. Over the years, certain attributes of Greentop’s design (e.g., tabbed battens in gables and beveled stone piers) began to show up at Misty Mount. Whether these were deliberate decisions or the result of accidental, early “style creep” is impossible to know without more robust documentation, but the evidence of evolution and adaptation is quite clear. 

Inspired by architects like Mary Jane Colter and Herbert Maier who had recently begun to evoke a sense of rustic comfort in park architecture across the country, Good was commissioned by the DOI to distill that concept into a concerted architectural style.