Ramirez Solar House: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
Mealey J. 2024. Ramirez Solar House: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 300062. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
The Ramirez Solar House is part of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (NRA), which encompasses 67,210 acres along both sides of the Delaware River in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Established in 1965, the park provides unique opportunities to experience tranquil landscapes, rich human history, and striking scenery along 40 miles of the longest free-flowing river east of the Mississippi. The park acquired the Ramirez Solar House cultural landscape, located in Dingman Township, Pike County, Pennsylvania, in 1986. The Ramirez Solar House property is situated along Raymondskill Road, a thoroughfare whose eastern end intersects US Route 209 near the western bank of the Delaware River. From Route 209, Raymondskill Road runs west, climbing the steep ridge at the western edge of the Upper Delaware Valley. Along its route, the road mostly parallels the course of Raymondskill Creek. The entrance to the Ramirez Solar House property is located on the southern side of Raymondskill Road, approximately one mile from its intersection with US Route 209. Comprising 122.6 acres, the Ramirez Solar House landscape is primary wooded and features varied topography, including relatively level areas at the property’s northern end near Raymondskill Road and steep ridges and ravines to the south. Raymondskill Creek defines the property’s eastern boundary and Bridal Veil Creek runs along the property’s southern edge. Raymondskill Falls, a dramatic cascade that is considered the tallest waterfall in Pennsylvania, is located near the property’s southeastern corner. The Ramirez Solar House, possibly the oldest surviving example of passive solar building technology in the Eastern United States, sits on a knoll in a clearing near the center of the landscape. The building was created in 1944 when Gustavo Ramirez hired architect Henry N. Wright, Jr. to transform a pre-existing home into a distinctively modern showcase of passive solar construction. The pre-existing building had been constructed in 1910 as a rural retreat for Archer and Mary Harman, New Yorkers who chose the present-day Ramirez Solar House property as the site for their summer estate, which they called Golden Spring. The Archers’ 1910 house exhibited a combination of Shingle Style and Colonial Revival architecture, and the 1944 remodeling by Ramirez and Wright resulted in a radical transformation of the building’s character. In addition to the Ramirez Solar House, the landscape contains a variety of landscape features that date to the beginning and middle of the twentieth century. These include an entrance road and several rustic fieldstone bridges, walls, and other structures that were built for the Harmans in 1910. In the area immediately surrounding the house exist several elaborate masonry features, including stairs and retaining walls, also originally built in 1910 but redesigned to complement the Ramirez Solar House in 1944. Other existing historic landscape features include the remnants of a sugar maple allée along the entrance road as well as specimen tree and shrub plantings. A former caretaker’s house and pump house also stand near the Ramirez Solar House, and the remnants of twentieth-century agricultural structures are located in a cluster near the property’s northern end.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Mealey, James
- Date of Issue
- 2024
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- DEWA , NER
- Keywords
- Agricultural Field, Agricultural Outbuilding Barn, Agriculture/Subsistence, Architecture, Construction, Creating Social Institutions and Movements, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Domestic (Residential), Engineering, Entertainment – Recreation, Estate Landscape, Expanding Science and Technology, Expressing Cultural Values, Forest, General Recreation, Golden Spring, Golden Spring Farm, Gustavo Ramirez Solar House, Historic Designed Landscape, International (1915-1945), Landscape, Landscape Architecture, Leisure-Passive (Park), Livestock, Meadow, Mountain Shadows, Nadler House, Nadler Solar House, Natural Area, Ramirez House, Ramirez Solar House, Ramirez-Nadler Solar House, Recreation, Secondary Structure (Garage), Single Family Dwelling, Single Family House, Storage (Granary/Silo)., Technology (Engineering and Invention)