Wawona Hotel and Pavilion

Wawona Hotel is a cluster of eight white and brown wooden buildings in Wawona, near Yosemite, that has served as a resort hotel since the late 1800s. Galen Clark settled the site in 1856, built a bridge over the South Fork of the Merced River and ran a lodging station for visitors to Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove. After his original hotel burned in 1878, the Washburn brothers and their partners built the present complex, beginning with the main hotel in 1879 and adding cottages, an annex and a dormitory through 1920. The Washburns also ran the stagecoach line whose road became part of State Highway 41. The Pavilion served as the summer studio of landscape painter Thomas Hill from 1886 until his death in 1908. Notable guests included presidents Grant, Hayes and Theodore Roosevelt. The complex retains much of its Victorian and Edwardian character and still operates as a summer hotel.