{"nrhp_refnum":"79000283","name":"Parsons Memorial Lodge","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Tuolumne Meadows","address_restricted":false,"city":"Yosemite National Park","county":"Tuolumne County","state":"CA","lat":37.87838207650006,"lon":-119.36740232036172,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-04-30","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1987-05-28","areas_of_significance":["Conservation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story, one-room fieldstone lodge at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park, Tuolumne County, California, built in 1915 by the Sierra Club.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the lodge is an exceptional early example of rustic architecture that blends with its glacially carved setting and anticipated later National Park Service building styles. It also served as Sierra Club headquarters in the Tuolumne Meadows area, giving it local significance in conservation. A later correction credits Bernard Maybeck as designer, adding associative significance.","narrative":"Parsons Memorial Lodge is a small stone building at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park, erected in 1915 by the Sierra Club. It measures about 28 by 50 feet and has a single room, with walls of pink feldspar and grey granite laid as uncoursed rubble. Its low gable roof rests on peeled log rafters, and a round-arched plank door is flanked by casement windows. Stone and logs came from the immediate vicinity, so the building appears to rise from the landscape. The lodge was named for Edward Taylor Parsons, a Sierra Club director who worked with John Muir on publicity about the Hetch Hetchy reservoir controversy. It held a meeting room and a mountaineering library open to members and the public. The nomination highlights it as an early rustic design that foreshadowed later National Park Service buildings. A correction to the original form credits Bernard Maybeck as designer, with Mark White as assistant, which adds to its importance.","period_of_significance":"1915","architect_builder":"Mark White, Architect; Walter Huber, Structural Engineer (a later correction names Bernard Maybeck as designer, with Mark H. White as his assistant, and Walter L. Huber as construction engineer)","architectural_style":"Rustic","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Form lists the condition as good and unaltered, on its original site, with status marked unoccupied and use as a museum.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:32.023103-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/79000283.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000283/9afb51b7f7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000283/9afb51b7f7-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Gowittylb","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:138.ParsonsMemorialLodge.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Gowittylb</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:138.ParsonsMemorialLodge.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123862288","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsons_Memorial_Lodge","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1848127"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/tuolumne-county/parsons-memorial-lodge-79000283/"}