Oregon Caves Chateau - Little D Gets an Upgrade

The Oregon Caves Chateau, owned by the National Park Service and operated by a local non-profit, is one of the “Great” lodges of the Pacific Northwest.  Built in 1934 by private money and purchased by the Feds, it is need of significant upgrades, the funding for which is currently pending at the Congressional level.

The Friends of the Oregon Caves & Chateau, a 501-c3 chartered to support the efforts of the NPS at the Caves, has undertaken a series of projects over the past few years designed to help the Chateau, and NPS, figure out some of the restoration issues.  We’ve written before about the “Nu-Wood” interior wall cladding.

The Friends’ current project is the rehabilitation of Little D, the former staff dining area, located on the 2^nd basement level.  Built to feed the original cave guides, college students who worked here during the summer, Little D has never been available to the public and, since the end of the cave guide program, has essentially been unused.  We’re rebuilding the kitchen, upgrading the interior, and transforming Little D into a large group meeting space that will be available for dining, educational programs, and all sorts of other events that currently aren’t possible.  The long term goal is that Little D can operate independently, during the shoulder season, and extend food service and programs at the Caves without having to open the full Chateau.

Little D was painted all white in 1964, following flood damage.  It is clad with Nu-Wood, and the columns have been painted out.  It’s pretty functional.  We’ve come up with a plan to paint and spruce it up to create a more attractive space, with new lighting, and some faux paint treatments (graining the columns, for example) that better capture the original lodge character.  

This includes the recreation of a chair rail element to divide the upper and lower walls.  Built from three pieces of wood, each painted to match the character-defining Monterey Furniture of the chateau, it's not a complex detail, but a time-consuming one.  Since nobody else was available (willing?) to mill and build (and paint!) the chair-rail design, we offered to do it.  It was fun to put the wood shop to good use.

  

The Oregon Caves Chateau turns 75

Yesterday we were at an Ice Cream social to commemorate the 75th birthday of the Oregon Caves Chateau, an NHL located in the Oregon Caves Monument, at the end of the road south of Cave Junction, Oregon. It was neat event, buoyed by the presence of Oregon's Governor Ted Kulongoski, the First Lady (and Oregon Trust Advisor) Mary Oberst, Representatives from the Congressional Delegation, the State Legislature, County Board of Commissioners and the National Parks Service, among many others that included the Friends of the Oregon Caves, former residents and workers. The Caves, and the Chateau, have an ever-growing fan base, to be sure.


As I've mentioned before, I've been working with the Friends to design and rehab a "Model Room" at the Caves, taking what was formerly the much-altered Manager's Suite and using it as an experiment to develop a viable alternative to the original (and hence historic) fiber-board/Celutex wall and ceiling coverings that were installed in 1934. These panels (in both 4x8 sheets and, in the hallways, about 18"x24" tiles) were installed directly over the studs, without any insulation, fire rating, or sound-proofing. You can see the "Before" picture above. And, if you have ever spend a night at the Chateau, I don't have to tell you how that lack of performance effects what the hospitality folks call "the visitor experience." The Manager's Suite had been modified (painted white, rather than the original brown/tan (turned orange by 1950s-era fire retardant) so working with NPS and Oregon SHPO we decided to remove it and explore a visually-compatible, more functional, alternative. In this case, after insulating the walls for both energy and acoustics, we took drywall with a chamfered bead and textured the finish. We're still messing with the paint scheme a bit and haven't quite perfected the "pickled" trim, but we're getting there. Refinished wood floors, historically-based lighting, and other details will, presumably, all improve the visitor experience. So will the revamped plumbing and electrical systems, but neither are as photogenic.


The Governor and First Lady cut a ribbon, to formally "open" access to the Model Room and the assembled crowd trekked up the stairs to see how we'd done. Afterwards everyone had Oregon150 Ice Cream (graciously served by the Governor), locally made cookies, and good conversation.


This project is the first step in what is a hoped for full systems and structural upgrade for the Chateau (Congress and Parks Service willing), to be paired with room-by-room restoration based on this model. New textiles and finishes (most from Oregon-based companies) will blend with the huge collection of historic Monterey Furniture that was part of the Chateau's original design. Stay tuned.

Hello and welcome to the preserveoregon blog, something that I probably don't really have time for but which seems like an interesting idea for some reason. My intent here is to provide some detail on the life of a "professional preservation" consultant (a dubious honor, to be sure) and otherwise impart whatever odd bits of information strike my fancy.

Today, having been gone most of last week in Portland, I am attempting to finalize a few projects and gear up for a day-long kickoff meeting at the Oregon Caves Chateau, in Cave Junction. There, after literally years of planning, we are going to start work on the renovation of a "Model Room," with the intent of testing out theories and materials for replacing the really horrible cellutex-type tiles that old Gust Lium, the original builder, used for both the walls and the ceiling. It's not bad looking stuff, but if you have ever stayed there, you know that is has zero acoustic value.