Sunset Crater Volcano NM Visitor Center Complex HD: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, National Park Service

Curran, Michele

On May 26, 1930, the 3,040-acre Sunset Crater National Monument was established by Presidential Proclamation. In 1990, the monument’s name was changed to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. Between these years, the landscape was altered during a notable era of park development that continues to leave a significant impression of historic architecture trends. The Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument (NM) Visitor Center Complex Historic District (HD) is located 12 miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona, just east of Highway 89 on the Sunset Crater-Wupatki Loop Road. The Visitor Center Complex sits on U.S. Forest Service land approximately ½ mile west of the monument boundary and is surrounded by ponderosa forest and cinder dune landscape. The entire monument is encompassed by the Coconino National Forest. The period of significance for the Historic District is 1965 to 1967, marking the years of design and development. The complex includes the visitor center, maintenance shop, maintenance yard, and apartments. Its significance is associated with the National Park Service (NPS) Mission 66 program of park planning and design, a multi-year effort to upgrade park facilities to meet rising visitor demands. Mission 66 represents significant changes in park planning, management, and construction, and changes during this time were evident in structures, roads, and even uniforms. In 1965, NPS architect Cecil Doty designed the administrative complex at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument to centralize visitor facilities and park operations, keeping with the Mission 66 vision. The visitor center serves as the only public building in the Sunset complex, welcoming visitors from the front parking area while partially concealing utilitarian park facilities from the public. In addition to the visitor center building, Doty’s original design for the Sunset complex included two other one-story buildings – a maintenance garage with a carport-style equipment storage area, and a two-unit apartment building. A “fence” built of 2x4 framing with cedar shingle siding and a lava rock water table form walls that extend from the visitor center and maintenance garage to make a rectangular enclosure around an employee parking area. The Sunset Crater complex is exceptional among Mission 66 developments because it was located outside of Monument boundaries to preserve the natural resource, it was an original development that did not build on any existing construction, and it represents an unusual design pattern for Cecil Doty. Although the Sunset complex was designed around existing roads, it represents the first true construction episode in the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument administrative area. Visitors enter the public area through a parking area that runs along the monument highway. The visitor is then greeted by the visitor center’s terraced entryway in front of the center’s exhibit room, with its distinctive open floor plan. Other facilities, such as offices, maintenance areas, and residential areas, are positioned behind the public area so that they are effectively hidden from public view. Likewise, inconspicuous cinder-covered roads leading to these support facilities are partially obscured by tree cover. Therefore, the design and circulation of the Sunset complex gives the illusion of a landscape with only minimal development, creating a greater sense of “harmony” with the natural setting.

Sunset Crater Volcano NM Visitor Center Complex HD: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, National Park Service

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