Simmons Gap: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Shenandoah National Park
Crosbie A and Commisso M. 2025. Simmons Gap: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Shenandoah National Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 300124. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
Simmons Gap is a maintenance and administrative area for the South District of the 196,000-acre Shenandoah National Park (NP) in Virginia. The nine-acre site is located at Mile Post 73.0 along the 105-mile Skyline Drive, a designated National Historic Landmark District that traces the park’s ridgeline and offers panoramic views of the Piedmont Plain to the east and Shenandoah Valley to the west. Simmons Gap also includes a ranger station and serves as a trailhead to the nearby Appalachian Trail and Simmons Gap Trail. Simmons Gap is reached by a short, paved access road that branches off from the east side of Skyline Drive. The road curves through the largely forested area before ending in the maintenance building area, which includes a maintenance shed, maintenance shop, and gas and oil building constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the mid-1930s and early 1940s. Just south of the maintenance area, the road splits after passing over a small stone-faced bridge and leads to the rest of the developed area, which includes the last remaining building of an Episcopal mission community that was at the site prior to establishment of the park. The one-story sandstone Mission Community Hall was built in 1925 and is currently used as a ranger station and office. Other features in this area include a fire cache, ranger office, rescue cache, two contemporary houses, and a trailer/utilitarian shed as well as a small paved parking area, weather station, and flagpole. The buildings and parking lots at Simmons Gap are set within lawns with a few shrubs and several large shade trees.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Crosbie, Allison; Commisso, Michael
- Date of Issue
- 2025
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NER , SHEN
- Keywords
- Administrative Area, Agriculture, Appalachian Trail, Architecture, Blue Ridge Mountains, CCC, chestnut blight, Civilian Conservation Corps, Community Hall, Community Planning/Development, Conservation, Designed Landscape, Drought, Entertainment/Recreation, Episcopal Mission, Frederick William Neve, Landscape architecture, Maintenance Area, Motor Road, National Historic Landmark, New Deal, Politics/Government, ranger station, Recreation, Religion, Rustic style, Skyline Drive, Social History, South District, Southern Appalachian National Park Committee, The 1930s: Era of Public Works, The Great Depression and Conservation, Touring Roads and Parkways, Transportation, Virginia