YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis announced on April 16 the designation of the Lake Yellowstone Hotel as a National Historic Landmark.
The Lake Hotel joins more than 2,500 other sites nationwide carrying this distinction. National Historic Landmarks possess the highest level of historic significance – there are approximately 90,000 sites on the National Register of Historic Places and less than 3 percent of them are designated as landmarks.
The park’s oldest hotel is owned by the National Park Service, operated by Xanterra Parks & Resorts and sits on the north shore of Yellowstone Lake. Through its concessions contract with the park, Xanterra recently completed a $28 million renovation of the hotel.
“This recognition of the Lake Yellowstone Hotel will help protect this irreplaceable example of historic architecture in the world’s oldest national park,” said Jim McCaleb, general manager of Yellowstone National Park Lodges and Xanterra’s Vice President of Parks North. “It also comes at the perfect time because the hotel will mark its 125th anniversary in 2016, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.”
Initially designed by Washington, D.C. architect N.L. Haller and constructed in 1891, the Lake Yellowstone Hotel was entirely reconceived in the first decades of the 20th century by noted architect Robert C. Reamer as a grand resort hotel displaying the Colonial Revival style.
“This designation is an excellent example of a public-private partnership between Yellowstone National Park and Xanterra,” said acting superintendent Steve Iobst. “Xanterra was a champion for the nomination of the hotel and funded its preparation.”
