Grand Canyon Village: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Grand Canyon National Park, National Park Service

John Milner Associates, Inc., Contractor; Shapins Associates, Contractor

The Grand Canyon Village Historic District is part of the larger Grand Canyon Village, located on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona and a component of Grand Canyon National Park. The cultural landscape inventory boundaries align with those established for the National Historic Landmark District, enclosing 130 acres which contain a variety of features that contribute to the character of the landscape: the rim area, utility area, railroad area, NPS service and housing areas, community school, and camp area. The period of significance for the Grand Canyon Village is 1897 to 1942, representing the years of origin, growth, and development of the Village as a regional hub of tourism and transportation activity. The oldest standing structure on the rim, the Buckey O’Neill Lodge, was built in 1897. The landscape’s significance is associated with the American park movement, development of Grand Canyon National Park, and politics and government. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was influential in the development of the Village. Significant government funding and large numbers of workers between the years 1933 and 1942 led to many improvements, including stone wall construction, roads, walkways and paths, utility lines, and re-vegetation efforts. The Village is also associated with tourism trends, encouraged by greater mobility, increase in leisure time, and the development of recreational facilities by early entrepreneurs. The Grand Canyon Village is associated with community planning and development, landscape architecture, and architecture. Town planning incorporated development with an appreciation of the natural landscape, and efforts were made to balance construction with existing natural features. It continues to represent planning within a national park and serve as one of the first examples of Rustic architecture, which aimed to align construction with the natural landscape. National Park Villages were a planned attempt to provide public use of an area without unnecessarily marring the landscape and scenery being made accessible. Euro-American settlement in the region began with mining in the 1870s. When this proved unprofitable, settlers shifted to tourism. In September of 1901, the Grand Canyon Railway was completed, bringing tourism and development to the rim. The San Francisco World’s Fair of 1915 further increased visitation to the South Rim, as it was along the route for many. That year, the U.S. Forest Service, steward of Grand Canyon operations, issued tourism permits to any livery, stable, and tourism operators willing to relieve the visitation pressure. The result was a messy, noisy, unregulated spate of development. This period of unplanned development was the impetus for future planning efforts in what would become Grand Canyon Village. In 1919, the Grand Canyon was transferred to the National Park Service (NPS), which was more familiar with principles of community planning and landscape architecture. The master plans with the longest-lasting impact were those of Daniel Hull. Hull’s 1921 and 1924 plans formed the “blueprint” for the majority of planning efforts and development within the park, also setting a precedent for future national and state park planning. The Village has continued to grow and change since the period of significance. However, the current Village Historic District remained amazingly intact, as growth tended to occur outside of the Village Historic District boundary. The Village Historic District continues to maintain a high degree of integrity. Although some landscape features are missing or deteriorated, the majority of features remain intact from the period of significance and accurately portray the landscape’s significance as an important contributor to the American park and landscape architecture movements.

Grand Canyon Village: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Grand Canyon National Park, National Park Service

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