Places

Glacier National Park's historic buildings and structures are listed in or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, some individually and others grouped in historic districts. The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the nation's places that are worthy of preservation. To meet eligibility requirements, a historic property must be significant to our history in architecture, archaeology, engineering, or culture. Buildings must convey a sense of time and place and are generally at least 50 years old.

Among the 375 historic properties in Glacier National Park are six National Historic Landmarks: Going-to-the-Sun Road, Lake McDonald Lodge, Many Glacier Hotel, Granite Park Chalet, Sperry Chalet, and the Two Medicine Store. National Historic Landmarks are nationally significant historic places designated by the Secretary of the Interior because they possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States.

Read profiles of five of Glacier's National Historic Landmarks in Architecture in the Parks: A National Historic Landmark Theme Study by Laura Soullière Harrison, published in 1986:

• Lake McDonald Lodge (built 1913)
• Great Northern Railway buildings (Many Glacier Hotel, Two Medicine Store, Sperry and Granite Park Chalets)

 

Lake McDonald Lodge, a National Historic Landmark

NPS/David Restivo

Historic Lodges and Chalets

Built in the 1910s and scattered throughout Glacier are a number of lodges and chalet buildings still in operation. Step through their doors and you step back in time.

 

Belton Bridge, former entry to the park

NPS/Jacob W. Frank

Park Headquarters

Glacier National Park Headquarters Historic District is made up of a host of interesting buildings and structures chronicling the history of NPS architecture.

• Take a walking tour of the district
• Read more about them in At the Foot of the Belton Hills: A Cultural Landscape History of the Headquarters Area, Glacier National Park

 

West Tunnel of Going-to-the-Sun Road in 1930s

NPS Archive/R.E. Marble

Going-to-the-Sun Road

Between Apgar Visitor Center on the west side and and Divide Creek on the east, stretch 48.7 miles of history. Construction on Going-to-the-Sun Road began in 1919. Ten years later, visitors could reach Logan Pass. A few more years of hard work and the road reached St Mary.

• Watch a vintage silent film about its construction.
• Read an excerpt from the brochure "Going-to-the-Sun Road: An Engineering Feat" (pdf)
• Going to the Sun Road engineering record in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Catalog.
• Lying Lightly on the Land & PARKitecture in Western National Parks
  Check out these NPS virtual exhibits on the history of road development and rustic design throughout the park system.

 

Logan Pass Visitor Center

NPS/Tom Gray

Mission 66 Visitor Centers

Both St. Mary Visitor Center and Logan Pass Visitor Center are examples of a modernist architectural design style born out of a National Park Service development program known as Mission 66.