Headquarters: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Shenandoah National Park

Crosbie, Allison

The Headquarters site is the administrative and maintenance center of Shenandoah National Park (NP). The park was one of two national parks in the southern Appalachians authorized by Congress in 1926 and established in the 1930s. The twenty-four acre site is a portion of a 260-acre parcel purchased for the development of the Headquarters, located three miles west of Thornton Gap (and Skyline Drive) and four miles east of Luray, Virginia, on U.S. Route 211. It is approximately one mile outside the west boundary of the park. Vegetation at the site is covered with wooded areas as well as open meadows and lawns. The property is comprised of four distinct sub-areas, including the administration area, the employee residential area also used for park offices, the (former) Superintendent’s Residence, and the maintenance area. An access road off of Route 211 connects all four sub-areas with spurs to both the residential area with its own loop road, and the (former) Superintendent Residence. The Administration Building and its adjacent parking lots occupy the most prominent site along Route 211 so as to be visible to passing motorists. The maintenance area is located furthest to the north away from view, and the residential areas are located between. The Administration Building, built in 1940, was designed as an I-house type building with a central section and several separate gable-roofed sections on either side. A long wood building addition, built after construction, extends from the rear of the building. Locally quarried sandstone was used for the ashlar stone facades and the roof was laid with slate shingles. The Warehouse and several other maintenance buildings also feature ashlar stone facades. G.E. Baughan, a landscape architect with the NPS, designed three employee residences in the early 1940s, all of which reflected local building styles and techniques. Two of the residences featured wood siding, slate roofs, and prominent sandstone chimneys. The third residence was designed as a traditional rectangular cabin with a front porch. All three residences had wood frame garages with arched double doors and strap hinges. A pre-existing farmhouse built in 1916 was remodeled for use as an employee residence along with another farmhouse, constructed in 1870, for use as the Superintendent’s Residence. The Headquarters site also features landscape elements constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the 1930s and 1940s, including the main access road, stacked stone grills, a boulder drinking fountain, wooden lamp posts as well as the planting of trees and shrubs.

Headquarters: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Shenandoah National Park

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