Vint, Thomas a 1894-1967 Ploneers of American handscape Design. Eds. C.A. Birnhaum, Robin Karson. N.Y. llagram Hill, 2000. Pp. 413-416. VINT, THOMAS CHALMERS (1894-1967) landscape architect, park planner, conservationist Thomas Chalmers Vint was born in Salt Lake City, and where Hull and Vint shared the offices of architect grew up in Los Angeles, where he attended Polytechnic Gilbert Stanley Underwood, who was designing park High School. Having decided on a career in landscape lodges for concessionaires. Vint became an assistant land- architecture, he enrolled at the University of California, scape engineer in the National Park Service in 1923 and Berkeley. While in school, Vint worked in the offices of an associate landscape engineer in 1926. When the office several Los Angeles landscape architects, architects, and moved to San Francisco in 1927, he took charge of the builders, including A. S. Falconer, who was designing bun- landscape program and soon after was made chief land- galows for the Southern California Home Builders and scape architect with responsibility for the location, char- Standard Building Investment Company, and Dodd, acter, and quality of construction and planning in all the a residential architect. For nearly a year he served as an parks in the system. assistant to Lloyd Wright, a landscape architect and the Under Vint, the landscape program of the National son of Frank Lloyd Wright, who was designing the Park Service expanded into a single, fully orchestrated grounds of large residences and laying out residential process of park planning and development based on nat- subdivisions. The following summer, he returned to work uralistic principles of design and an ethic of landscape for Wright and his new partner, Paul G. Thiene, who were preservation. Vint developed a highly successful program preparing landscape designs for several Pasadena suburbs. to train his staff, assembled from several fields of study Years later Vint recalled that in Wright's office he had the and areas of expertise: architects, landscape architect, opportunity to deal with "every problem from many engineers, and draftsmen. He coordinated a service-wide angles" and received "thorough" training and exposure to program of landscape preservation and harmonization to the landscape profession. Vint graduated from Berkeley meet the park service's difficult twofold mission, that with a B.S. in landscape architecture in 1920, having parks be both accessible to the public and preserved spent a semester studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts unimpaired for future generations. His standards for after serving in Europe during World War I. locating and designing park roads have had substantial In 1921 he studied city planning at the University of influence on highway construction outside the National California, Los Angeles, and then worked a variety of Park Service. short jobs while intermittently accepting contracts to By July 1929, Vint had transformed the Landscape grade and plant residential grounds and supervise con- struction. While working for a Los Angeles construction company, he learned about the large-scale planting of trees and shrubs, and as an employee of the architectural firm of Mayberry & Jones, he observed firsthand the use of concrete for the construction of hotels, garages, and hospitals. He briefly headed the landscape office for Armstrong Nurseries of Ontario, California, advising on planting designs and supervising planting projects. Vint also conducted experimental nursery work for the Cali- fornia Walnut Growers Association at the state's experi- ment station at Riverside. Vint's early work experience equipped him with a variety of practical skills that pre- pared him well for his long career with the National Park Service. In November 1922, Vint became an architectural draftsman in the office of Daniel Ray Hull*, the National Thomas Vint (middle left) in the Western Field Office, Park Service's chief landscape engineer, in Yosemite 1928-33. Photo George A. Grant. Courtesy National Park Ser- National Park. In 1923 the office moved to Los Angeles, vice Historic Photography Collection. Division into a design office with an increasing emphasis proposed improvements for all parks. Dubbed "master on general planning. The division prepared the architec- plans" by National Park Service director Horace tural and landscape plans for government projects under Albright in 1932, they quickly became the essential the direction of the park superintendents, reviewed the tool for all park planning and development. Updated plans for tourist facilities to be built by the concession- annually, they guided national park development for aires and the plans for roads, and prepared the architec- many years. tural plans for bridges constructed by the Bureau of During the 1930s, under the leadership of Vint and Public Roads. In a 1930 annual report, Vint remarked his staff, the National Park Service developed an increas- that the San Francisco office operated much like the ing number of parks from historic sites, the monuments usual professional landscape office except that it had and parkways of Washington, D.C., many other national "the ideal condition of having park superintendents for monuments, and national parkways such as the Blue clients." Ridge Parkway. The Historic American Building Survey In the late 1920s, plans were under way for many was launched under Vint's supervision. As a member of of the larger parks; by the end of 1931, as a result of the the editorial committee for Park Structures and Facilities Economic Stabilization Act, Vint and his staff, in con- (1935) and Park and Recreation Structures (1938), Vint junction with park superintendents, had begun plans of communicated many of his ideas on park planning and development to state park designers. In 1938 he became parks. The National Park Service successfully argued for chief of Planning, supervising 150 to 200 architects, land- new appropriations, and Congress approved a ten-year scape architects, and planners in four regional offices and program of park development and improvements called "Mission 66." Vint was a member of the steering com- two field divisions. World War II brought a rapid end to the CCC and mittee and headed the initial planning stage; in 1961 he PWA allocations. Planning, design, and construction in was made assistant director for Design and Construc- national parks virtually ceased for the duration of the tion. Shortly thereafter, Vint retired after almost forty war. In 1946 master plans were once again revived and years of federal service. updated; however, there was little money for construc- Vint was a Fellow of the American Society of Land- tion and development. scape Architects, a Fellow of the American Institute of By the mid-1950s, burgeoning numbers of park vis- Architects, and a recipient of the Distinguished Service itors coupled with inadequate and outdated facilities Award, the highest civilian honor conferred by the United raised public concern about the condition of national States. Vint and the process of planning and construction that Carr, Ethan. Wilderness by Design: Landscape Architec- he had spearheaded since the late 1920s. ture and the National Park Service. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. A compilation of case stud- McClelland, Linda Flint. Building the National Parks: His- ies highlighting the accomplishments of the land- toric Landscape Design and Construction. Baltimore: scape architects of the National Park Service and Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. History of the their contributions to American landscape history; a policies, principles, and practices of landscape design chapter documents the role of Vint and his staff in which guided the development and protection of the coordinating a master plan and designing facilities for national parks from the founding of the National Park Mount Rainier National Park. Service to the end of the twentieth century; several chapters trace the leading role that Vint played in Hubbard, Henry V*. "Landscape Development Based on shaping the design services and planning process from Conservation." Landscape Architecture 29 (April 1939), 1928 to 1961. 105-121. A comprehensive view of the work of the National Park Service's Branch of Planning headed by Linda Flint McClelland E&AA News and Notes Tom Vint Profiles of NPS greats With this issue of the COURIER we are launching what we believe will be an interesting and valuable series of biographies of men and women now deceased who over the years of service made important and lasting contributions to the work of the National Park Service. We are undertaking this series in the belief that present-day employees of the Service ought to be better acquainted with the many and notable accomplishments of their predecessors, the people of whom they are the heirs and to whom they owe much for having played their parts in making the National Park Service the great bureau that it has been for more than 60 years. On Oct. 26, 1967 death claimed Jackson Lake Lodge at Grand Teton, The brought landscape architecture into Thomas Chalmers Vint in his retirement Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim collaborative partnership with engineers city, Tucson, Ariz. Tom, who had a and the Williamsburg Lodge. The office of the Public Roads Administration, he distinguished Park Service career of 39 was removed to Yosemite for a time and set in motion a trend which continuously years, was born Aug. 15, 1894, of Scotch- Tom succeeded Hull as Chief Landscape improves the face of America as Irish parents recently arrived in the Architect in 1927. thousands of miles of highways, United States and then living in Salt Lake The office was again moved, this time parkways, and turnpike bear the imprint City. His boyhood was spent in Los to San Francisco, as was the Engineering of some landscape architectural Angeles. After high school, he entered Division from Portland, Oreg. Together, considerations. the University of California at Berkeley they became known as Western Field Another facet of Tom's versatile talents for the study of landscape architecture. Headquarters. From that time until was his leadership in programs His class was interrupted by World War I. retirement in 1961, Tom held a number concerned with historic buildings Tom enlisted, and was commissioned a of important titles. His philosophy was preservation and the launching of the Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps. They greatly influenced by close early Historic American Buildings Survey, the received ground training on campus association with Steve Mather and brain-child of Charles E. Peterson. Many before being shipped to France for flight Horace Albright, and was passed along to thousands of structures doomed by training. One of his classmates was James those of us fortunate enough to work changing ownership, obsolescence and "Jimmy" Doolittle, who achieved fame as with him. In the fall of 1933 he was urban change were recorded by a civilian flyer after the War and further transferred to Washington, where his drawings and photographs, and are fame as an Air Force General in WWII, experience was needed because of the available from the Library of Congress. particularly for Doolittle's Raid on Tokyo. growing number of System units in the The biggest monument to Tom Vint's Tom had little good to say about his Army East. pioneering professional career is experience. While stationed near Lyon, It would be impossible to single out probably the large number of men he France, Tom was able to take enough Tom's most lasting contribution to the encouraged and counseled. Many would architectural courses at the University in national park concept or to the have left the profession during the Lyon to be allowed a semester's credit at profession of landscape architecture. His discouraging period of the Great Berkeley. key role in pioneering the master-plan Depression had they not been Following 1920 graduation, Tom approach to sound long-range planning influenced by Tom. worked several years in the architectural was certainly one monument to his Perhaps mentioning traits would clarify office of Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles. In career. A large number of first-edition Tom's personality for later Service 1922 Tom went to work as assistant master plans were 'unveiled' at the 1932 employees. landscape architect in the National Park Superintendent's Conference at Hot Personality: Modest (sometimes shy), Service, under the late Daniel R. Hull. Springs, Ark. Of equal and continuing informal, good-natured, happiest when They had rented space in the Los Angeles importance would be his contribution to attired in outing clothes suited to Alaska architectural office of Gilbert Stanley highway and parkway standards of or Africa. Underwood, the concessioner's architect location and design. Co-author of the As a raconteur: Not a prolific story for the Ahwanee Hotel, Yosemite, the inter-bureau agreement which first (Continued on page 24.) 23 teller by NPS standards, but had a couple tongue-in-cheek. "Spare no expense to Africa, and traveled in Kenya, Uganda, he loved to tell under the right social keep it simple"; "One honest crook is Zanzibar and South Africa. stimulation. One, in particular, was the worth a thousand self-righteous After returning to Tucson, Tom funnier by his getting SO tickled at the hypocrites"; "Lack of bad habits can be answered the call to duty: road projects telling. It went like this: "Know what the hazardous to your health. Almost every in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park ram said as he fell cliff? I didn't person will some day have a serious needed close supervision and Tom and see that ewe turn! illness and need something to give his Mary went to Hawaii. Illness toward the As a speaker: Avoided public speaking system an extra lift. Those who have no end of this assignment required Tom's like the plague. No one ever got him on a habits will be unable to give up anything, hospitalization in Hilo and subsequent radio program or before a TV camera. and are doomed." return to Tucson. Favorite speech was at the close of Some of the honors bestowed upon Tom and Mary had two sons, Robert meetings-"I move we adjourn." Tom were: (a) Elected Fellow, American and Thomas. Both are married, and As a versatile smoker: Tom loved Society of Landscape Architects, 1948, Robert has 5 children. anything from Corona cigars to hand- and Fellow, American Institute of Tom and Mary both passed away in rolled cigarettes to corn-cob pipes. Architects, 1961, only man in the USA 1973. As a brittle-bones: Tom's first fracture elected Fellow of both. (b) Recipient of a The 28th Session of the Albright was a leg broken in Carlsbad Caverns, Rockefeller Medal bestowed annually Training Center was named in his honor this before the elevators were running, upon 10 outstanding career persons in in December, 1968. As was said with requiring a carry-out operation of several the Federal Service. (c) Recipient, NPS respect to Steve Mather, there is no end miles by stretcher, Tom then weighing a Distinguished Service Award, 1952. (d) to the good that Tom Vint did. For his bit over 200 lbs. A few years later he fell Recipient of Pugsley Gold Medal genial, firm and competent grip was on from a tree in Bandelier while on a road presented annually by the American the development tiller back in the survey, suffering further fractures. The Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. formative days when the pattern was third time happened at Colorado The retirement of Tom Vint to Tucson, being set. National Monument. Ariz., in 1961, did not end his As a philosopher: Tom had several professional endeavors. He accepted an -William G. Carnes favorite sayings, put forth with some appointment to study national parks in Kowski tourney in D.C. Alumni sports note alumni editor served as official Chalk up another first for the NPS. photographer Immediately preceding WW II, the Everybody came to the games- Divisions of Land Planning and State mammas, pappas, aunts, uncles, kids and Cooperation, WASO, headed by cousins, clerks and executives. There was Assistant Director Connie Wirth, and the beer, picnic lunches, sunburn and regional office at Richmond, led by Herb chiggers. It was a hell of a lot of fun. Evison, used to play an annual softball The war terminated this thrilling rivalry game, usually at a neutral field in a State but the memories remain. They haven't park between the two cities. seen slo pitch like it since. Slo or soft pitch softball, now the rage -Fred Morrell. in many metropolitan areas, was born in Alumnus Bullock the course of these contests. Not intended that way, slo emerged because gets award neither Connie, the Washington hurler, Director Dickenson on the golf course. nor Herb, his counterpart for Richmond, Referring to him as "distinguished The Washington, D.C., segment of the could throw hard enough to explode a pioneer in restoration architecture," the 6th annual Frank Kowski Golf soap bubble. Considering their Cecil (Md.) Whig of May 28 carried a 3- Tournament for the benefit of the E&AA supporting casts, they pitched with great column story on Orin M. Bullock, on the Educational Trust Fund plans to have a courage and faith. occassion of his receipt of the State of star participant when it kicks off Sept. 5. The scores were horrendous since the Maryland's highest award for historic None other than Director Russell E. fielding was on a par with the pitching. preservation accomplishment. In enson will try the links to boost NPS Some worthies who displayed their ceremonies held at Annapolis, he was kids scholarships. "And, he's been inconsiderable skills in their epic one of three recipients of the Calvert practicing, too," according to Dave struggles (besides Connie and Herb) Prize, instituted in 1976 by the Maryland Gackenbach, area coordinator. were, Freddie Johnston, later Historical Trust. The D.C. area tourney will be held at superintendent at Hawaii Volcanoes During the heyday of the Franklin D. the Woodlawn Country Club in beautiful National Park; Neil "Dynamite" Roosevelt administration, Bullock served downtown Mt. Vernon, Va. Advance pre- Butterfield, landscape architect; the late as regional architect in the Region One registration should be made b Aug. 29, Howard "Hank" Greenberg, the NPS Office in Richmond. Previously he had and all are invited-golfers non-golfers, chief safety officer; Tommie Sullivan, been director of architectural research spouses and friends, and of course, NPS now a scout for the Washington Redskins for Colonial Williamsburg. He has now employees. According to Gackenbach, football team; Jake Heugstler, who went for many years been a leader, on a there will be numerous local prizes in on to become a swimming and wrestling national scale, in historic restoration addition to the big Nationwide honors. coach at Catholic University; Jim activities; his most popular project has "The Director hopes to see a big Stephenson; Merv Van Dyke, and Paul been direction of the restoration of the turnout for the tourney to support this Green, now a top amateur golfer in the historic Rodgers Tavern, in Perryville, worthy cause," according to D.C. area; Sam Alu, Howard Chittick, Md. He is a resident of Rising Sun, Md. Gackenbach. yours truly Rowe Morrell, and many Fore! other sterling jocks. Jim Kieley, COURIER -Herb Evison. 24 National Park Service: Biography (Thomas Vint) Page 1 of 2 National Park Service: The First 75 Years Biographical Vignettes Thomas Vint 1894-1967 by Mary Shivers Culpin For nearly 40 years, Thomas Vint played a major role in the physical development of the national parks and monuments. His influence began during the infancy of a defined park architecture program through the beginning of the Mission 66 period. The 1920 University of California graduate studied for a time at the Ecole de Architecture, University of Lyon, France. His National Park Service career began in 1923 as a draftsman working under the well-known rustic architects Gilbert Stanley Underwood and Herbert Maier in Yosemite National Park. In 1927 he assumed the chief landscape architect's position and remained in command of landscape architecture and architecture for the National Park Service until his retirement in the 1960s. Vint began his National Park Service career at a very challenging time. The late 1920s and early 1930s were http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/sontag/vint.htm 2/8/2008 National Park Service: Biography (Thomas Vint) Page 2 of 2 times of extensive construction of roads, housing, visitor lodging, and campgrounds. Assembling a staff of fine, creative landscape architects and architects, Vint instilled the philosophy of harmonizing the buildings or structures with the environment. Vint co-authored an agreement with the Bureau of Public Roads in which the bureau supplied the technical documents and the construction of major road projects, and the National Park Service provided the landscaping design and details. He also developed the idea of Master Plans for parks, which provided comprehensive planning for all important phases of planning, design, and construction. Vint took a major role in the organization of the Historic American Building Survey sponsored by the National Park Service, the Library of Congress, and the American Institute of Architects to preserve a record of buildings important in American history. Toward the end of his career, he demonstrated far-sighted leadership as chairman of the Steering Committee in developing Mission 66. At many parks or monuments today, Thomas Vint's influence can still be seen in the fine rustic buildings or bridges or, more subtly, in the manner in which the developed areas blend with the environment. From National Park Service: The First 75 Years History I Links to the Past I National Park Service I Search Contact Top Last Modified: Dec 1 2000 10:00:00 pm PDT http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/sontag/vint.htm ParkNet National Park Service http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/sontag/vint.htm 2/8/2008 HFC 232 THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONS OF OUR NATIONAL PARKS by Thomas C. Vint, Chief Landscape Architect, National Park Service. Dates "Why gild the lily?" is a well-worn question that arises in the early stages of many a discussion involving a development program in our national parks. It is a good question and a helpful one. It asks, "Didn't nature: do well enough?"; "Didn't history do the right thing?", "Can these places be improved upon?", "Why develop them?" It is a good question for it expresses briefly - perhaps a bit bluntly, the reasoning behind the policy under which our national parks and allied areas are administered. These areas were set aside and designated National Parks, National Monuments, National Historic Sites, each one for a specific reason and purpose. They contain the great examples of our natural scenery and the places that mark important moments in the Nation's history. Nature gave us those in one category and history left us those in the other. They are the treasured items of our national heritage. They have been selected and set aside with the admonition that they be preserved for the enjoyment of the people of this and future generations. This means that preservation and protection is of primary importance. In itself this is a relatively simple matter. How to. reconcile this with how they are to be used "for the enjoyment of this and future generations" brings the problems. Lock them up on one hand, wear them out on the other. This has been met by excluding such commercial exploitation as lumbering, mining and grazing. Their use is limited to that of providing for the visitor who, comes to see and appreciate them. Recreation in its usual sense is not provided. The vacationer who seeks a resort where he will find such sports as golf and swimming will not find them in the national parks. He who seeks to see America and the great things it has will find them just as he might on a European trip see Mont Blanc, the Coliseum, the Fjords, and Waterloo. Here he will see the Grand Canyon, the Giant Forest, Jamestown Island, and Gettysburg. He will enjoy the experience of seeing and being in the presence of the great things of nature and the great places of his- -tory. The American citizen or the visitor from abroad who experiences these things experiences America, The development program of these areas therefore is largely one that provides for the visitor. His use in turn is limited. He is not allowed -to hunt nor carry away fragments as souvenirs. The area is made reasonably accessible to him by roads and trails. Transportation; if the does not use his own automobile or his feet, is available by bus and saddle horse. Assist- ance is given him. to. interpret and appreciate the principal features and Published by the Philosophical Library of New York in its Symposium of October, 1944, on "New Architecture and City Planning." their significance through museums, signs and pamphlets. Meal service and overnight accommodations are provided when it is not practical to obtain these elsewhere. For example, Yellowstone, Glacier and Sequoia National Parks are large areas and too remote from facilities available outside the park, making it necessary to provide hotels, camps, etc., within the park. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Fort McHenry and Muir Woods National Monuments are of the other type; outside overnight facilities serve them adequately. On the other hand, such facilities could no doubt be made profitable if the policy were one that promoted develop- ment. The emphasis given above to limitations of use might lead one to think the method of meeting planning problems in national parks is to dispose of them; regulate them out of existence. Actually, these are measures first to protect the parks and the features that gave them im- portance, then to provide for the visitor who comes to enjoy them for what they are. They single out the purpose of the parks. With all these points that may tend to reduce the planning problems to a simple minimum, one great variable prevails - the habits of the travelling public. No sooner are these accommodated than new ones appear. Until about 1915 national parks were reached largely by railroad. Within the park travel was by horse-drawn stage, horseback or afoot. In those days a visit to a national park was an important event in a lifetime. The visitor took ten days or more to see the Yellowstone, three days to a week for Crater Lake. It was a large undertaking, an adventure. A consider- able expenditure of money was involved. The number of visitors in a season was relatively small. The accommodations were simple. There were but few rooms with bath in the hotels. In most of the rooms the pitcher and basin prevailed. In many localities sleeping accommodations were provided in tents. The Ameri- can Plan prevailed; one bought his ticket to and thru the park, meals and berth included, much as he would steamer ticket. All visitors had their meals in the same dining room, wrote letters in the same lobby and gathered around the fire in the evening. This made a common datum for all visitors which did much to make a trip to and around the park something of the same experience to all who came. Park travel became motorized about 1915. The private auto put in its appearance. The motor soon replaced the horse on the stage lines. Yellow- stone became a five-day trip, Crater Lake, one day. In 1922 the private auto carried about one percent of the visitors. It was not long following World War I that the automobile changed from a rich man's luxury to the poor man's transportation. This had a far- reaching effect on national parks. Travel increased by leaps and bounds. About the same number of people came to Yellowstone during the five-year period 1922 - 1927 as did in the fifty-year period 1872 - 1922. The man who could devote a month of his year to travel undertook to see several 2 parks; whereas, ten and twenty years before he saw but one. The man who crossed the continent for business or pleasure could include a na- tional park by adding a day or two to his schedule. On the other hand, the fellow with a good pair of hiking shoes, an extra pair of SOX and the Daniel Boone impulses to penetrate the wild country hasn't changed. His needs are about the same as before the auto. Unfortunately, he hasn't increased in numbers. He makes a smaller per- centage of the total visitors. There are ample trails for him and his follower, the man who rides a horse. Both get the most out of a visit to a park. The great increase in motor travel required that the early wagon roads be changed to motor roads. They were widened to two-way travel and given a dustless surface. Mountain roads changed to two-way roads, brought numerous projects that in the earlier years would be called en- gineering feats. They are conspicuous; have necessarily brought forth many irreparable scars, and are an incongruous note in the protection and preservation of natural conditions in these areas. These scars exist in spite of all the care, effort and expense that has been used to reduce the effect of these intrusions. They exist at the expense of the park landscape, although the road systems in each park are restricted and make only a limited portion of the park accessible. Large superlative natural areas are accessible only by trails. Motor roads have been the means of allowing great numbers of people to see these outstanding areas. It is reasonable to argue that the same number of people could not have seen the parks and do less damage by other means of travel than the motor car, together with its oiled two-way road. Perhaps the motor car should not have been admitted, this would have meant that only a small fraction of those who have been to them could have seen them. It cannot be denied that those who did get there would have seen them in a better way. The last prewar year brought more than 20,000,000 visitors, the majority with- in the short vacation season of 90 - 120 days. The automobile and its increased numbers brought changes in the visitor accommodations. Larger units at fewer locations resulted from the faster roads and better engines. Some hotels were abandoned, others grew larger. Plumbing and electricity were provided in more and more rooms. The cabin replaced the tent; the automobile campground provided for the man with his own tent and frying pan. Then the trailer made its appearance. Many are the types of experience to be gained from a trip to a national park in recent years in comparison to the single experience provided in the horse-drawn stage days. How will the postwar traveller move? The motor car will develop farther. The railroads will develop new methods. The airplane will no doubt bring the greatest change in any one field of locomotion. Global war may develop global tourists. One thing is certain, the decade follow- ing the war will develop different travel habits from the decade before the war. 3 How will these effect the development of national parks? Travel habits will have much to say. It seems that roads and trails will con- tinue to serve as the principal means of getting about to see the parks. These may be supplemented by airplane sightseeing trips. The greatest change is likely to be in how the park is reached, more than what happens after arrival. Today the airplane is excluded. Neither regulations nor facilities provide for it. Should the regulations be changed, it is not likely that airports with their mile-long runways and 40-1 glide-angle approaches will develop within park boundaries. Topography will not permit it. There is not enough level ground. The nearest large airport will have to serve, using the automobile or bus from airport to the park. The helicopter type of air taxi suggests the one place the airplane will materially affect national park development plans. Not enough is known of how it has ad- vanced during the war to venture into the possibilities at this writing. The automobile brought into being a new development - the parkways. These were originally developed in Metropolitan areas for traffic reasons. When an important road reached the saturation point a second artery was developed to carry passenger car traffic - frontage rights were eliminated, access was limited, and a wide right of way provided, which made an elongat- ed park for the roadway to pass through. National parkways have come into being for park reasons and are not essential parts of the national traffic system. These elongated parks are selected to unfold a region to the traveller. The traffic seeks them for what they are, to travel and to see the elongated park as they would any other park. The frontage rights are eliminated, access is limited, and the wide right of way is provided. Where desirable the right of way is enlarged to include wayside parks to give emphasis to some specific features. National parkways are selected to protect and display natural features or historical features or a combination of both. The same underlying principles - apply as in national parks - protection and preservation - yet making provision for the visitor to enjoy them. The development policy can be more liberal, with less restrictions for the visitor than in a national park. The national parkway fits the more developed sections of the coun- try in that it utilizes less ground to include important works of nature or places of history. They do not have the large natural areas of untouched lands or virgin forests of the national parks. The roadway is a prominent feature. They are the motorists' parks. They represent a type of develop- ment that came with the motor age. They are new. Their future depends on wise application and the attitude of the traveller. They are closely related to the future of the automobile. National Historical Parks, National Historic Monuments, and National Historic Sites include the places that are important in the history of the country. Fundamentally, the same reasoning applies as in the natural 4 parks; protection, preservation, and making them available to the visitor. In practice the thing to be preserved is the picture at the time - an attempt is made to stop the clock, nature is not permitted to take its course. For example, the scene of Pickett's charge at Gattysburg is lost if nature takes its course and the field is allowed to grow up into woods. At the historic time it was a farmer's field. Today it is preserved as a farmer's field and is cropped by a farmer. Historic buildings are preserved. A decade ago restoration was a keynote. The trend now is to protect the original and let the visitor make his mental restoration. Many of these can be as accurate as the best restoration that can be provided. The theme today is "Better to preserve than repair, better repair than restore, better restore than construct. So much for the reasoning that lies underneath the planning of the development of national parks and allied areas. The mechanics of planning them is provided in a well established procedure. There is a Master Plan for each park which guides the development. It governs all construction and maintenance work that make's a change no matter how large or how small the project. All effort is applied in the same direction toward the final result. A Master Plan consists of a series of drawings and written statements. These include an inventory of what is in the park and a statement of policy and objectives as to how the park is to be used. Finally, it includes plans showing the general location and scope of facilities to be provided. The plans may give emphasis to what is not to be done. The plans are progressive, that is they are revised regularly as new problems arise and new data is available, Planning is a continuous process rather than finding a fixed diagram and calling planning finished business. The war stopped all development in national parks. Besides fitting the nation's war effort, this gave the parks a well earned breathing spell. Much was done in the way of development in the past decade. Park work fitted well into the unemployment relief programs. Planning effort - like construction - has been reduced but still is alive, while construction is at a complete standstill. The Master Plans being kept current and flexible enough to adjust to new conditions stand ready to meet postwar needs: The development program provides, when construction is renewed, for resumption where it left off. This does not mean to assume that the same plans will suffice, and that postwar needs are the same as prewar. It means the program is large enough to. select work for the first years that is reasonably certain to stay. Roads that have been begun will be completed. These are few. For the most part, existing roads will be resurfaced, bridges and guard rail will be built. New roads will not be undertaken until trends are tried and the need tested to see if postwar conditions demand them. Likewise, buildings 5 such as warehouses and repair shops will be in high priority. New museums and other public use facilities will be considered after those under way are completed. The postwar program for an individual park is rather meager. It is on the conservative side. Putting the programs of 168 areas including national parks, national monuments, historical parks, historical monuments and parkways together makes a sizeable total. Reducing the estimates to dollars and cents there is a ten-year program of $7,500,000 a year for roads and trails in the parks and monuments, which varies from completing the Tioga road in Yosemite to a parking area at Salem Maritime National Historic Site; $10,000,000 a year for parkways, including the Blue Ridge, Natchez Trace, George Washington, and Olympic; $4,000,000 a year for such physical improvements as buildings and water or sewer systems. This pro- gram provides for replacement of many facilities that were built in the days of the horse-drawn stage; others that were hurriedly built on a tem- porary basis to meet rapidly changing conditions, for carrying to completion facilities begun in recently established areas, and some allowance for areas yet to be established. The National Park System while well developed through a rapid growth in the past 20 years, needs some carefully chosen additions to round it out. There are under study a number of prospective additions, both nat- ural and historical. These will come as time and study dictate. Some boundary adjustments in existing areas will come. The program here will be more one of rounding out the system rather than branching out into new types. The pattern is set. Closely related is the completion of land acquisition within the existing boundaries. There is still much privately owned land within the existing parks. Its elimination is a slow process, an unpleasant one; hence, little incentive to gain the necessary support, yet in the aggre- gate it amounts to purchasing a national park (within the boundaries of existing parks) - as large as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Development problems depend much upon the visitors' habits. The important thing ahead is to save the parks for the people. In many in- stances the problem is to save the parks from the people themselves. For example, how many people should be allowed in the park a' one time? It is a strange situation in a public area. We are taught that public places welcome all who come. A brief analysis will show that limiting the number who may be in the park at one time will not make a general hardship. It means putting a ceiling on the peak loads. This in turn may mean that on 15 to 30 days of the usual 90-day tourist season a reservation will be necessary in order that those who do come will find a spot to park the car - a place to get a meal - a room to sleep in or a place to pitch the tent. There is also the economic side of the question. How can the cost of accommodations be kept down if more than a reasonable percentage of the facilities are used but fifteen days a year? Primarily the prob- lem is one of not building to accommodate peak loads but trying to spread the peak load. 6 Postwar plans for the National Parks amount to a continuation from the point where prewar plans left off. There are no flamboyant schemes to be put into effect, no grandiose dreams to be carried out. There is no reason for them. When a man rebuilds his house he may provide for more abundant living and the realization of dreams, Not so the trophy room, which protects and preserves his treasured articles. Likewise, the nation may rebuild its cities, develop new transportation systems, etc., , but the problem of the national parks is essentially the same, to protect the treasured items of our national heritage. In these great areas the landscape architect and the architect must approach their problems with humility, In the natural areas the land- scape work is done, the landscape architect is in the position of placing intrusions (for human convenience) in the natural picture, knowing full well the landscape will be less perfect when he is through. The architect must subdue his design that the work of man will not attempt to dominate that of nature. Likewise, in historical areas they must endeavor to let the past dominate the present. Their task is a delicate one. 2/10/44. 7 5938 FirstSearch: Detailed Record Page 1 of 1 Detailed Record Terms & Conditions OO © 1992-2003 OCLC LC Click on a checkbox to mark a record to be e-mailed or printed in Marked Records. H ? WorldCat results for: au: Vint and au: Thomas. Subjects Libraries E-mail Print Export Help Record 1 of 8 1 Mark: Prev Next Parks master plans / Thomas C Vint 1940-1949? English Book [18] p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm. [S.I. : s.n., Ownership: Check the catalogs in your library. Libraries that Own Item: 6 More Like This: Search for versions with same title and author I Advanced options Title: Parks master plans / Author(s): Vint, Thomas C. Corp Author(s): National Park Service. Publication: [S.I. : s.n., Year: 1940-1949? Description: [18] p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm. Language: English SUBJECT(S) Descriptor: National parks and reserves -- United States. Note(s): Title from cover. / Caption title: National Park Service master plans. Class Descriptors: Geographic: 3700 Other Titles: National Park Service master plans. Responsibility: [by Thomas C. Vint] Document Type: Book Entry: 19850722 Update: 19950316 Accession No: OCLC: 12291131 Database: WorldCat ? WorldCat results for: au: Vint and au: Thomas. Subjects Libraries E-mail Print Export Help Record 1 of 8 http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org/WebZ/FSFETCH?fetchtypc=fullrecord:sessionid=sp0lsw01-60464-dao... numrecs= 1/7/2003 Thomas Chalmers Vint Page 1 of 3 Thomas Chalmers Vint (1894-1967) was Chief of the Design and Construction Division of the National Park Service when he was awarded the Pugsley meal in 1955. Prior to his appointment to this responsible position, he was promoted through successive positions to Chief Landscape Architect in charge of landscape and architectural design and construction throughout the National Park Service. He joined the Park Service in 1923 as a landscape architect in Yosemite National Park, following three years in practice with architects in Los Angeles. Mr. Vint was as responsible as any one man at that time for the development of the areas comprising the National Park System in such manner that while they provide for public use, they remain essentially unspoiled "for the enjoyment of future generations," in accordance with the directive contained in the Act of Congress establishing the Service. One of the little known but highly important developments of 1933 was the establishment of the Historic American Buildings Survey under Mr. Vint's supervision. The HABS, as it was familiarly known, obtained measured drawings and photographs of more than 2800 historic buildings throughout the country; also recorded by photographs alone were an additional 3500 buildings. This survey is one of the outstanding contributions in the conservation of historic buildings conceived and executed in this country. In 1952 the Department of the Interior conferred on Mr. Vint its Distinguished Service Award for outstanding ingenuity and resourcefulness in solving architectural and engineering problems in the Park Service, and for leadership and unswerving integrity for a period of more than thirty years of continuous service. Vint was born in Salt Lake City, and grew up in Los Angeles, where he attended Polytechnic High School. Having decided on a career in landscape architecture, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley. While in school, Vint worked in the offices of several Los Angeles landscape architects, architects, and builders, including A. S. Falconer, who was designing bungalows for the Southern California Home Builders and Standard Building Investment Company, and W.J. Dodd, a residential architect. For nearly a year he served as an assistant to Lloyd Wright, a landscape architect and the son of Frank Lloyd Wright, who was designing the grounds of large residences and laying out residential subdivisions. The following summer, he returned to work for Wright and his new partner, Paul G. Thiene, who were preparing landscape designs for several Pasadena suburbs. Years later Vint recalled that in Wright's office he had the opportunity to deal with "every problem from many angles" and received "thorough" training and exposure to the landscape profession. Vint graduated from Berkeley with a B.S. in landscape architecture in 1920, having spent a semester studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts after serving in Europe during World War I. In 1921 he studied city planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, and then worked a variety of short jobs while intermittently accepting contracts to grade and plant residential grounds and supervise construction. While working for a Los Angeles construction company, he learned about the large-scale planting of trees and shrubs, and as an employee of the architectural firm of Mayberry & Jones, he observed firsthand the use of concrete for the construction of hotels, garages, and hospitals. He briefly headed the landscape office for Armstrong Nurseries of Ontario, California, advising on planting designs and supervising planting projects. Vint also conducted experimental nursery work for the California Walnut Growers Association at the state's experiment station at Riverside. Vint's early work experience equipped him with a variety of practical skills that prepared him well for his long career with the National Park Service. In November 1922, Vint became an architectural draftsman in the office of Daniel Ray Hull, the National Park Service's chief landscape engineer, in Yosemite National Park. In 1923 the office moved to Los Angeles, where Hull and Vint shared the offices of architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood, who was designing park lodges for concessionaires. Vint became an assistant landscape engineer in the National Park Service in 1923 and an associate landscape engineer in 1926. When the office moved to San Francisco in 1927, he took charge of the landscape program and soon after was made chief landscape architect with responsibility for the location, character, and quality of construction and planning in all the parks in the system. Under Vint, the landscape program of the National Park Service expanded into a single, fully orchestrated process of park planning and development based on naturalistic principles of design and an ethic of landscape preservation. Vint developed a highly successful program to train his staff, assembled from several fields of study and areas of expertise: architects, landscape architect, engineers, and draftsmen. He coordinated a service-wide program of landscape preservation and harmonization to meet the park service's difficult twofold mission, that parks be both accessible to the public and preserved unimpaired for future generations. His standards for locating and designing park roads have had http://www.rpts.tamu.edu/Pugsley/Vint.htm 1/13/2003 Thomas Chalmers Vint Page 2 of 3 substantial influence on highway construction outside the National Park Service. By July 1929, Vint had transformed the Landscape Division into a design office with an increasing emphasis on general planning. The division prepared the architectural and landscape plans for government projects under the direction of the park superintendents, reviewed the plans for tourist facilities to be built by the concessionaires and the plans for roads, and prepared the architectural plans for bridges constructed by the Bureau of Public Roads. In a 1920 annual report, Vint remarked that the San Francisco office operated much like the usual professional landscape office except that it had "the ideal condition of having park superintendents for clients." In the last 1920s, plans were under way for many of the larger parks; by the end of 1931, as a result of the Economic Stabilization Act, Vint and his staff, in conjunction with park superintendents, had begun plans of proposed improvements for all parks. Dubbed "master plans" by National Park Service director Horace Albright in 1932, they quickly became the essential tool for all park planning and development. Updated annually, they guided national park development for many years. During the 1930s, under the leadership of Vint and his staff, the National Park Service developed an increasing number of parks from historic sites, the monuments and parkways of Washington, D.C., many other national monuments, and national parkways such as the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Historic American Building Survey was launched under Vint's supervision. As a member of the editorial committee for Park Structures and Facilities (1935) and Park and Recreation Structures (1938), Vint communicated many of his ideas on park planning and development to state park designers. In 1928 he became chief of Planning, supervising 150 to 200 architects, landscape architects, and planners in four regional offices and two field divisions. World War II brought a rapid end to the CCC and PWA allocations. Planning, design, and construction in national parks virtually ceased for the duration of the war. In 1946 master plans were once again revived and updated; however, there was little money for construction and development. By the mid-1950s, burgeoning numbers of park visitors coupled with inadequate and outdated facilities raised public concern about the condition of national parks. The National Park Service successfully argued for new appropriations, and Congress approved a ten-year program of park development and improvements called "Mission 66." Vint was a member of the steering committee and headed the initial planning stage; in 1961 he was made assistant director for Design and Construction. Shortly thereafter, Vint retired after almost forty years of federal service. Vint was a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award, the highest civilian honor conferred by the United States. Source: McClelland, Linda Flint. (2000). Vint, Thomas Chalmers. In Charles Birnbaum and Robin Karson Pioneers of American Landscape Design. McGraw Hill, pp. 413-416. Sources used by McClelland. Car, Ethan. Wilderness by Design: Landscape Architecture and the National Park Service. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. A compilation of case studies highlighting the accomplishments of the landscape architects of the National Park Service and their contributions to American landscape history; a chapter documents the role of Vint and his staff in coordinating a master plan and designing facilities for Mount Rainier National Park. Hubbard, Henry V. "Landscape Development Based on Conservation." Landscape Architecture 29 (April 1939), 105-121. A comprehensive view of the work of the National Park Service's Branch of Planning headed by Vint and the process of planning and construction that he had spearheaded since the late 1920s. McClelland, Linda Flint. Building the National Parks: Historic Landscape Design and Construction. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1998. History of the policies, principles, and practices of landscape design which guided the development and protection of the national parks from the founding of the National Park Service to the end of the twentieth century; several chapters trace the leading role http://www.rpts.tamu.edu/Pugsley/Vint.htm 1/13/2003 C. /: Vint John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Acadia National Park From the time that John D. Rockefeller, Jr. first bought property on Mt. Desert Island in acquiring the Eyrie at Seal Marbor in 1910*, until his death in 1960, Mr. Rockofeller maintained a most onthusiastic and activo interest in the island and in the developments that led to the formation of Acadia National Park. His first small gift of $100 in 1911, to help purchase land as public reservation, led to gifts of land totalling more than 11,300 acros at a cost of more then $1,000,000. He built some 51 miles of beautifully constructed carriage roads for the Park cost* ing roughly $2,000,000. He contributed substantially to the Park system of motor roads; and for buildings, bridges, forestry and planting gave at least another $1,000,000. After the disastrous fire of 1947, be gave $500,000 for cleanup and reconstruction. Mr. Rockofeller's interest was a very strong personal one. "I think I have always had an eye for nature," he wrote; "because I was brought up in the woods I have always loved the trees, the rocks, the hills and the valleys." He believe that National Parks should offer the public "arcas of such outstanding interest in them- selves that they tell their own story if only they are made reasonable accessible." Mr. Rockefellcr himself actually developed the general plan for the present Park as it is today. As a summer resident of Mt. Decert Island, Mr. Rockefeller came to know every part of the island intimately, all of its physical geography and natural beauty. As he wrote, it is "one of the greatest views in the world. 11 In a letter to Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior in 1935, he outlined the essence of his vision for the ioland and its Park: "When Acadia National Park was established, it consisted only of mountain tops of Mount Desert Island (the Monts Deserts mentioned by Champlain when he saw them in 1604 giving the island its name). Thus the Park area at the outset was not access- ible to any highway and was traversed only by foot trails. Believing that it should ultimately extend to the ocean on one side and to Frenchman's Bay on the other, and that access to it would be desirable not only for podestrians but, in carefully chosen areas for lovers of horses as well as automobiles, I bagan years ago buying lands on the Island having in mind to make possible the rounding out of Park bound- aries and its extencions and developments as above outlined." The actual start toward Acadia National Park began before Mr. Rockefeller's arrival as a landowner, In 1901 a small group of long time summer residents of the island met to form a corporation to acquire and "hold reservations at points of interest on this Island, for the perpetual uso of the public." In 1903 this group, The Haneock County Trustees of Public Reservations, received its charter from the Maine Legislature (President-Charles W. Eliot, Vice Procident=Goorge B. Dorr, Secretary- L. B. Deasy, Treasurer-Goorge L. Stebbins.) In 1914 the Hancock Trustoes offered their lands to the Federal Government under the National Monuments Act. Though they had acquired over 5,000 acros they were not ablo to meet Government legal requirements for acceptance, However, on July 8, 1916, Mr. Rockefeller first took his family to Maine in 1908 for the sunner, ronting the Scars Cottage in Weymouth Lane in Bar Harbor. 1 resident Wilson created the Siour do Monto National Monument, with Goorgo Dorr as Custodian. The Monument, in 1919, becane Lafayette National Park, the first nation- al park in the country east of the Mississippi Rivor and the first to be acquired by the gift of land to the government. Finally, in 1929, a Congressional Bill changed the name of the Park to Acadia and authorized the Secretary of the Interior to accept gifts of land beyond Mt. Desert Island on the mainland. The active personal participation by John D. Rock:efeller, Jr. may be dated from 1915. In that year the executive connittee of the Hancock Trustees passed a resol- ution authorizing Mr. Rockefeller to begin constructing roads on their lands. In 1915 and 1916 Mr. Rockofoller made his first substantial contribution, in two pledges, which enabled the Trustees to complete the Reservation's tract for accept- ance by the Government as a National Monument, a total payment made to George Dorr of $34,500. From the Federal Government's acceptance in 1916 Mr. Rockofellor began to play an important role in almost every aspect of Acadia National Park's development. His procedure was to buy property personally, which he then deeded to the government. His land acquisition was pointed toward definito objectivos=a workable unit at a time in which the boundaries were studied from the viewpoint that the need for land was to be established and then acquisition carried out to nect the objectivo. His general practice was to obtain, through the Park superintendont an expression of the decirability of these lando as additions to the Park, thus cooporating with the Park Service in its objectives for land acquisition. Ho also had very definito plans of his own for the Park and in certain cases bought lands to further a specific project and then offered them to the Park as a package with his plan for their develop- ment. By 1935 Mr. Rockofeller's gifts to the Park totalled something over 2.700 aeros of land that cost over $250,000. The Park boundaries on Mt. Desert at that time extended to Frenchments Bay on the north and to the Atlantie on the south, By 1946 the total given by Mr, Roekefciler had rison to approximately 6,950 acros, and by his death in 1960 the total given, according to a report from Acadia National Park, October 18, 1968, 9,599.08 acros. In his will Mr. Rockefoller boqueathed an additional 1,701.80 acros to Acadia, making a grand total of 11,300 acros, to which should be added a dozen small parcels willed to the Park the acreage of which have not been deter- minods Taken all in all, this represents a gift of some 35% of today's total park, more than given by any other person or group, and probably more than all others taken together. A letter of April 26, 1955 from Thomas C. Vint, Chief Division of Design and Con- struction, National Park Service, to Moracc Albright gives a very cloar picture of Mr. Rockefeller's relationship to the Park, from one who know him well, "April 25, 1955 HER "Some notes concerning what Mr, Rockefeller had to do about the making of Acadia National Park: "He bought and gave to the park more land then any other person or group, It is 2 probably saíc to say more land than all others together--cortainly a greater total in value. "He built and maintained a carriage road system (notors prohibited) that give one who travels over it, or one of the loops that make up the system, a great experience -- an experience that gives the traveler all that Acadia Park has to offer -- its woods -- its lakes the grand views, the intinate views, the ocean, the mountains, etc., etc. Unfortunately, the public has responded to those much as it has the trial systems in other parks and uses then much less then anticipated. This is a motor ago which, when it settles down and the autonobilo less of c novelty to the general pop- ulation, the other moans of travel will como back to a reasonable proportion in the scheme of things. The carriage roads in Leadia National Park will one day get the recognition they deserve -- through uso by the public, - if not by carriages, by saddlo horse, bicycle, or by afoot. They will be much used and not by automobile. "He had much to do about the Park motor road system, which is separated by overpasses from the carriage roads and the Town roads. He built part of the Cadillac Mountain road and parts of the main park loop road. He employed an ongincering firm and Frederick Law Olnsted for the noted landscape architect to make surveys and plans for the motor road loop. In short ho planned the road system, started construction and Inter made an agreement with the Government that he would acquire and donate certain lands to the park if the Government would complete the road system. "The above facts are well know in connection with these certain points concerning Mr. Rockofeller's relationship and are of special interest: "There is a lot of him olf in what he did for Acadia National Park. It was no ordinary contribution for the public good. "He knows intinately the physical geography and the beautics of Mt. Dosert Island, Its hills .. its shoreline its streams its woods where the fino views are -- where autunn colors are best, etc. etc. Few people know the lay of the land and its interesting datails as well as he. He likes to build roads, Mo has a finc sense of location, fitting a road into the landscape. He made use of construction methods that reduced scars, many of which by example were used in other national parkas The road construction, which began as mentioned in 1915, was of the greatest interest to Mr. Rockcfeller, He approached this building as both an art and a science, study- ing every mile himself to give the Daxinun osthetic experience and the maximum com- fort. He hincelf fitted the roads into the landscape to cause the least possible scar to the torrain. Mile surveys were made at his request, he worked cut each unit on paper hinself and oversaw the actual construction, The grades, the curves, and the fine views for hin a personal creation. In 1932, lir. Rockefoller made an agreement with Secretary of the Interior Wilbur to clarify the conditions of land deeded to the Government: "For a period of at least twenty five years from the date of gift. the horse roads in existence or later constructed will be open only for the use of horses, horso- drawn vehicles and pedestrians and not for notor traffic, except by consent of the 3 grantor at the request of the National Park Service, and except for maintenance, fire fighting, etc." Mr. Rockofeller resisted the pressure to open the island roads to notors, and was one of those who opposed their adnissio to the last. Yet, when cars were admitted, he did much for the motor road program. In short, he planned the road system, started its construction, and later made an agreement with the Government that he would ac- quire and donate certain lands to the Park if the Government would complete the road system. More specifically, Mr. Rockefeller built the Jordan Pond - Eagle Lake Road from which the present road up Cadillac Mountain makes its ascont, the Government paying for the rost. In 1934, he finished the construction of Occan Drive to Sand Beach. North of this point, lie worked with the Government and offered certain lands to make extension possible. In the area of forestry, Mr. Rockefollor pade an additional important contribution. Vhile earlier the deep woods had been cafe from lumber companies because transport- ation costs were too high, the use of the now gasoline cawcill soon made it profit- ablo to cut any of the island's soft WOOD growths. Mr. Rockefeller rescued large tracts of land from the cawnill. It was little known except to those innodiately involved that these acquisitions were made just in time to save the forests from devastation -- in some cases only a few hours ahoad of the lunbernen and speculators. Further, Mr. Rockefeller followed a continuous policy of reforestation along his roads. He cut down dead trees, replaced or added to existing planting, brought in or transferred top coil where further planting accoud desirable, and soodod bare banks "in order to more completely restore the natural condition." The fifty-one niles of carriage roads put in with such care and devotion by Mr. Rockefoller - now all on Park land - proved invaluable during the tragic Mt. Desert Fire in 1947. Not only did the open spaces provided help check the advance of the fire itself, but the horse roads made it possible for the fire fighters to move through the mountains quickly. Without then, the non and equipment could not have reached Seal Harbor and Northcast Earbor, and they would have burned just as did so much of Bar Marbor. Of the total Park area at that time, some 30,000 acres, at loast one-third was burned over. Consulting with forestry tochnicians, Mr. Rockefoller drow up a plan for cleanup work, and John II. Eisinger was hired to do the job under a contract with the National Park Service. All responsibility for the work was undertaken by Mr. Rockefoller since there were no Park funds at the time to meet the energency. Fire damage crews worked the year round, and by 1952 expenditures were close to $500,000. Until his death in 1960, Mr. Rockefeller continued to contribute to further cleanup, and his widow, Martha Baird Rockefoller, made additional gifts for this work through 1963. In addition to the fifty-one niles of carriage roads now within the Park, to which Mr. Rock:efellor gave so much tinc and onthusiasm, there are another sixtoon niles of such roads on the 2,000 aeros still owned by the Rockefollor family on Mt. Dosert. These interconnect with the Park roads, and are all open to the public, making a unique system of sconic drives SOLIC sixty-seven niles in all. 4 There was, in fact, almost no area in connection with Acadia National Park that Mr. Rockefeller did not touch. He was much interested in Park architecture, and in 1929 sponsored and financed a survey by the Now York architect, Grosvenor Atterbury, of landscape and architectural problems for the Park Service. He wished to develop a type of architecture appropriate for Acadia. "I feel, he wrote, "that neither brick nor stucco would be appropriate. It seens, therefore, as though nativo stone and wood were the only other materials available. There are many ways in which these caterials can be used." In 1931, Mr. Rockefeller had the Brown Mountain and Jordan Pond Gate Houses built for a cost of about $80,000 -- stone and wood structures reflecting Hornan architecture. The Brown Mountain House was given to the Park in 1932, the Jordan house in 1940. Also, in 1923, Mr. Rockefollor purchased the Jordan Pond Tea House for $40,000. He leased it back to the owners who operated it until 1945. In 1940, Mr. Rocktofeller gave both the house and the surrounding land to the Park. Last of all, foreseeing the future, in 1034 Mr. Rockefeller becano a stockholder, and subsequently a Director of the Acadia Corporation, organized to take concessions from the Government for business opportunities in Acadia, and to operate then. His main interest in those concessions was their architectural detail, their suitability of location, and attractivonoss of structure. Ho kept in constant touch with the Corporation architecto, and submitted plans, revisions and suggestions for several of the concession buildings. Taken all in all, the contributions of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to Acadia National Park, spread over half a century, were an extraordinary expression of his devotion to preserving the great natural beauties still to be seen today in Mount Decert Island. 5 National Park Service: Presenting Nature (Chapter 6) Page 1 of 7 Linda Fint HaClelland. Presenting Nature: The Historic Landscape Design of the National Park Service, 1916-1942 N.P.S., 2016. Kee 100000 VI. A DECADE OF EXPANSION, 1933 TO 1942 (continued) PUBLIC WORKS ADMINISTRATION PROJECTS The Public Works Administration (PWA) was created by Executive Order 6174 on June Presenting Nature 16, 1933, under the authority of Title II of the National Industrial Recovery Act (48 Stat. 200). The order called for a comprehensive program of public works "to increase the consumption of industrial and agricultural products by increasing purchasing power, to MENU reduce and relieve unemployment. to improve standards of labor and otherwise to rehabilitate industry, and to conserve natural resources." President Roosevelt appointed Cover Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes administrator of the new agency. [1] Contents The PWA administered the program of federal and nonfederal works through allotments. Federal projects received funding based on their value to national planning and their role Foreword in fulfilling comprehensive plans prepared in advance. As a result, the National Park Service received funding for greatly needed capital improvements in all the parks and Acknowledgements monuments. Projects ranged from the development and improvement of trails, roads, and water systems to the construction of a wide range of park buildings and structures, the Overview most common of which were comfort stations. ranger stations. patrol cabins, fire lookouts. garages. residences, and maintenance shops. Some parks received funds for administration buildings and museums. Others received funds for campground Stewardship development. Existing buildings in many parks were added to, improved, and adapted for new uses using PWA funds. Restoration projects were undertaken in national Design Ethic Origins monuments, such as Casa Grande. (1916-1927) Design Policy & In the West, the influx of funds enabled the park service to build long-needed facilities Process and add to the administrative infrastructure required to meet the demands of increasing (1916-1927) visitation. The development of facilities in the national monuments, such as Casa Grande, Petrified Forest. and Tumacori Mission. received for the first time a regular source of Western Field Office funding. In the East. PWA funds made possible the development of facilities in the (1927-1932) numerous memorials. battlefields. and reservations that had come into the system in 1933. PWA funds also made possible the acquisition of important land areas for the Blue Park Planning Ridge Parkway and the construction of the Department of the Interior Headquarters in Washington. District of Columbia. Decade of Expansion During the first year of the PWA. the National Park Service received approval for roads (1933-1942) and trail work valued at $17.059.450 and other physical improvements valued at $2,145,000. The master plans prepared by Vint's office during the preceding two years http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mcclelland/mcclelland6a.htmg 1/7/2003 National Park Service: Presenting Nature (Chapter 6) Page 2 of 7 State rains (1933-1942) provided a ready-made outline of work projects that could be put into action immediately to provide relief to the unemployed. Work was done under contract with skilled labor Appendix A subject to specifications drawn up by the landscape and engineering divisions. Resident landscape architects reviewed the progress of each project and approved the completed work. [2] Appendix B a Bibliography Although the public works programs emphasized construction. this work had a strong relationship to the landscape design of the parks. First, all projects were based on master plans and as such shared the larger concern for site development and conformed to the principles for landscape protection and harmonization that underlined all park development. In addition, projects such as the stockade around the service area at Mount Rainier's Yakima Park and the fence and entry gate at Tumacori Mission, although structural in nature, were important landscape features. In 1933, the Landscape Division, renamed the Branch of Plans and Designs, was given full responsibility for producing building plans, specifications. and estimates. As the demand for working drawings and updated master plans increased dramatically in summer of 1933, the design process and training program that Vint had instituted in the late 1920s changed. In July 1933. when the first public works allotments became available, Vint (who was now called chief architect) had a staff of fifteen, which included a structural engineer. as well as many landscape architects with varying degrees of experience. Most of these were resident landscape architects assigned to one or more parks in the West and were directing the landscape work of the CCC. Both the men assigned to the parks and those who worked in the office created plans, drawings, and specifications under the process Vint had set up in 1928 Within two months. however.Vint's office had expanded dramatically. New members included architects and engineers as well as landscape architects with the skills to carry out the drafting and engineering required by the accelerated construction program. By November 1934, twenty-four additional designers had joined Vint's staff in San Francisco. While this corps enabled Vint to meet the immediate demand for designs for public works projects in the parks. this new generation of designers lacked firsthand familiarity with the parks and direct contact with park superintendents. All design of working drawings for the western parks was now done by staff assigned to the San Francisco office. The resident landscape architects continued. however, to revise the master plans and review all drawings for their parks. These changes resulted in a loss of the informality and free exchange of ideas that had marked the late 1920s There emerged the need for a well-defined approval process involving the park superintendents, the resident landscape architects and engineers. the chief architect, the chief engineer, the chief forester, the sanitary engineer. and the director of the park service. Vint's own status changed as well. In late 1934, he moved to the park service headquarters in Washington. D.C.. to head the Branch of Plans and Designs. William G. Carnes was placed in charge of the Western Division, and Charles Peterson remained in charge of the Yorktown office. which became the Eastern Division.At this time, the Western Division was divided into geographical districts headed by Ernest Davidson, Merel Sager. Harry Langley. John Wosky. Howard Baker, Herbert Kreinkamp, and Kenneth McCarter. [3] All designers in the service were consolidated into the western and eastern offices, where the architect. structural engineer. mechanical engineer, specifications writer, and estimator could work together and efficiently complete the massive volume of public works projects. This arrangement was successful. building on Vint's idea for a professional design office. Recounting the achievement of the Western Division from 1933 to 1937. architect E. A. Nickel wrote. "It was due to this complete organization that the entire Public Works Building Program was brought up to a satisfactory conclusion, despite many unknown factors at the time. and the continuous change in building conditions and prices of labor and materials in the National Park and Monument http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mcclelland/mcclelland6a.htm 1/7/2003 National Park Service: Presenting Nature (Chapter 6) Page 3 of 7 areas." 141> The national parks used PWA funds to build a wide variety of structures, from administrative and utilitarian projects such as patrol cabins, fire lookouts, and blacksmith shops, to landscape structures such as gates and steps, to utility systems and facilities for visitor use. The Western Division received a total of 185 PWA allotments from 1933 to 1937. These allotments covered projects as diverse as steps to the cliff at Montezuma Castle National Monument, the naturalist's residence at Lassen Volcanic National Park, the superintendent's residence at General Grant, barns at Sequoia's Redwood and Ash Mountain headquarters. innumerable snowshoe cabins at Mount McKinley (later Denali), picnic ground improvements at Muir Woods, an administration building at Crater Lake, a pump house and water system at Canyon de Chelly National Monument, and repairs to the lighthouse at Cabrillo National Monument. [5] At Mount Rainier, public works projects included the construction of a stockaded fence at Yakima Park to screen the maintenance sheds, garages, and equipment from public view, thus enclosing the work yard of the park village. Screens of vegetation were impractical in this subalpine terrain, where wind, temperature, and soil conditions hindered tree growth. The design of the stockaded fence was in keeping with the pioneer theme introduced by the blockhouse-style administration building. Public works funds were also used for the construction of log-and-stone comfort stations at the camping and picnic grounds at Yakima Park and a log ranger station and frame warehouse at the White River Entrance. Constructed elsewhere in the park were four fire lookouts, several fire patrol cabins. a number of fire guard cabins and caches, and even an icehouse. PWA funds were also used to develop campgrounds. At Yosemite, housing demanded much of the designers' attention, and a number of residences were built. in the form of individual homes, apartment houses, and duplexes. There the funds also went toward developing a campground at Tuolumne Meadows, building cabins for the Indian Village. and constructing the Hennis Ridge Fire Lookout. In Yellowstone. at the Mammoth Hot Springs headquarters. a large apartment house was built for rangers. and utility buildings were constructed. At Grand Canyon, a community building was built. in addition to many maintenance shops and residences. At new parks, such as Grand Teton. an administration building. entrance stations, and a superintendent's residence were constructed. At Glacier, sorely needed backcountry patrol cabins and fire caches were built. as well as many snowshoe cabins and several boat houses. http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mcclelland/mcclelland6a.htm 1/7/2003 National Park Service: Presenting Nature (Chapter 6) Page 4 of 7 During the 1930s, funding from the Public Works Administration made possible the construction of much-needed housing for park employees in Yosemite National Park. single-family residences took the form of Craftsman-style bungalows and had redwood siding, wooden shingles, stone foundations, an entrance porch with peeled log railings, and a stone chimney. Each house had a living room, dining room, kitchen, 3 bedrooms, and 2 baths. The CCC removed dangerous limbs from the surrounding oaks and planted ferns, azaleas, and other native plants as part of a program to beautify and naturalize Yosemite Village. (Report on the Building Program from Allotments of the Public Works Administration, 1933-1937) In all of these projects. emphasis was placed on principles of landscape protection and harmonious design. In the 1930s. the Branch of Plans and Designs relied heavily on the standards and specifications developed in the late 1920s and benefited greatly from the experience of Punchard, Hull, Vint, and the service's first resident landscape architects, including Ernest Davidson, John Wosky, Merel Sager, Kenneth McCarter, and Charles Peterson. Practices well established by the 1930s were readily incorporated into the public works building program. Designers endeavored to harmonize structures with the natural surroundings by using native materials. Road building adhered to the specifications drawn up by Vint's office and maintained the characteristics that were recognized as hallmarks of national park roads. The landscape designs for bridges. which routinely included elevations and details for arch rings, were increasingly prepared by engineers in the Western and Eastern design offices. The standards for trail construction that had been developed for western parks by Chief Engineer Frank Kittredge in the late 1920s were published as a circular for the parks in 1934. and, through the substantial PWA funds available for trail building. were applied to parks nationwide, including the Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah national parks in the East. The concern for naturalism and harmonization that determined the construction of surface trails was also applied to underground trail construction and improvements in parks such as Carlsbad Cavern. As the National Park Service inherited the parkways in the East, including the Mount Vernon Parkway near the nation's capital. and as the Eastern Division gained experience in building lincar park roads and parkways, such as Skyline Drive in Shenandoah and the Colonial and the Blue Ridge parkways, major advances were made in the aesthetics, kinetics. and engineering of park roads. http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mcclelland/mcclelland6a.htm 1/7/2003 National Park Service: Presenting Nature (Chapter 6) Page 5 of 7 The entrance to King's Palace in Carlsbad Cavern in 1934 illustrates the lighting and trail improvements made possible by Public Works Administration funds. The trail formed a loop that followed an undulating line among the cave's principal features. A smooth trail surface was made from earth and stone that had been removed from the cave floor during cleanup. Larger rocks formed a coping along the paths as well as the dry-laid walls that supported the trail. (National Park service Historic Photography collection) While the principles and practices for park development were standardized, their applications were highly individual based on the unique character of each park and the site and setting selected for construction. The western parks. for example, covered many types of areas. such as forested and wilderness areas. deserts. barren mountainous areas, rocky and treeless areas, areas of heavy rain and snow, and areas of no rain. The Western Division adopted a specific type of building for each location, such as flat-roofed adobe or pueblo structures in the Southwest and log or heavy timber constructions in heavily forested areas. As they adopted these forms. designers acknowledged the cultural influence of Spanish and Indian traditions in the Southwest and the pioneer traditions of covered-wagon days in other parts of the West. The designs were simple and functional but remained consistent with the architectural themes that had been developed for each park or, in new parks. took on appropriate characteristics drawn from pioneer, indigenous. or other local forms. Designers of utilitarian buildings endeavored to find obscure locations out of the sight of park visitors and simple functional and economical designs that harmonized with the natural setting. Due to the rapid production of drawings and the cost limitations placed on construction, new designs frequently lacked the careful attention to detail that marked the late 1920s and early 1930s. Specific objectives guided the work of the Branch of Plans and Designs during the 1930s. In a 1937 report on the achievements of the Western Division, E. A. Nickel summarized six basic principles. First, buildings should be in harmony with the natural surroundings and should be secondary to the landscape. unlike the buildings in a city or town. Second, all buildings in any one area should be in harmony with each other. having similar materials and elements of design-for example. roofs of the same type built of the same material and having the same slope. Third. horizontal lines should predominate. Fourth, stones and logs used in construction should be in scale with each other and their surrounding natural counterparts. providing a well-balanced and unified design. Fifth, where large trees and rock outcroppings were likely to dwarf buildings, giving them the appearance of being under scale. stones and logs used in construction were to be slightly oversized. Finally, rigid. straight lines were to be avoided wherever possible. "creating the feeling that the work was executed by pioneer craftsmen." This last principle applied to the ends of logs. stonemasonry. ironwork and hardware. and the numerous architectural http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mcclelland/mcclelland6a.htm 1/7/2003 National Park Service: Presenting Nature (Chapter 6) Page 6 of 7 details that made up a park building. [6] Before starting a building project. designers carefully studied the field conditions of each site, based on information generally provided by the park superintendent or the resident landscape architect. Designers considered the available natural materials and transportation, the proximity of the site to park headquarters. and any unusual factors that might affect the cost and design of the structure. Certain types of structures were more problematic and costlier than others. Fire lookouts, snowshoe cabins, and outlying ranger stations required that materials be transported to remote locations, often on mountaintops. Hauling in supplies for the work crew and construction materials such as cement, lumber, glass, hardware, and water added substantially to the cost of backcountry construction. Materials were often carried on muleback, making it impossible to transport materials larger than eight feet long. The cost of construction in a large park like Grand Canyon varied from location to location. Costs on the South Rim were lowest because of proximity to the railroad and park headquarters. On the North Rim, materials had to be transported 200 miles from the railroad terminal, and at Phantom Ranch on the floor of the canyon, materials were transported by mule requiring a one-day trip. At Yosemite, construction occurred in three principal sites of varying distances from the railroad: the park headquarters areas in Yosemite Valley, 14 miles from the railroad; Glacier Point and Wawona. one-half day's trucking time from headquarters: and Tuolumne Meadows, approximately one day's trucking time from headquarters. At Yellowstone, the distance between park headquarters and building sites varied from 5 miles to a full day's trucking time. and some sites were accessible only by mule. [7] Because of their functions and the need for sturdy construction, many of the structures built with public works allotments entailed a substantial amount of concrete work. This work. whether in the form of concrete footings or walls. was carried out in a very different manner from that in cities or towns, where sacks of cement and aggregate stone were delivered by truck to a site and water was piped in by public utility. In national parks. concrete materials were gathered from nearby gravel and sand beds, and water was collected from nearby streams and springs and sometimes brought to the site by mule. Not surprisingly. at Mount McKinley National Park, where cement cost $4.00 per sack compared with 75c to $1.00 in most other parks. construction costs were the highest of any park. [8] PWA projects fostered an increasing reliance on modern materials that were long-lasting and durable. and development of simple and functional designs adapted to the topography and character of their setting. In locations where rustic log-and-stone construction was out of place. where there was little supply of native building materials, or where the scale or utilitarian purpose of a structure made construction with native wood and stone impractical. designers experimented with substitute materials. Concrete was the most common choice. and efforts were made to stain concrete walls a natural color or give them a texture. often by imprinting the natural grain of carefully selected form boards. Climate and the character of nearby vegetation were important factors in the selection of materials. and culturally inspired designs were used whenever possible. Volcanic rocks, for example, formed the walls of overlooks at Hawaii. while corrugated iron provided a practical material for roofing. Continued >>> http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mcclelland/mcclelland6a.htm 1/7/2003