The Wawona Hotel is a historic

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

located within southern

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ...

, in California. It was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...

in 1987, and is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

History

The Wawona Hotel is one of the oldest

mountain resort A mountain resort is a place to holiday or vacation located in an elevated and typically at least relatively isolated area. The term resort implies integral hotel or inn accommodations, restaurants, and either or both sports facilities or sc ...

hotels in California, and a classic of

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwa ...

resort design. The Victorian style hotel was built in 1876 to serve tourists visiting the nearby

Mariposa Grove Mariposa Grove is a sequoia grove located near Wawona, California, United States, in the southernmost part of Yosemite National Park. It is the largest grove of giant sequoias in the park, with several hundred mature examples of the tree. Two o ...

Giant Sequoia ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (giant sequoia; also known as giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, California big tree, Wellingtonia or simply big treea nickname also used by John Muir) is the sole living species in the genus ''Sequoiade ...

s (''Sequoiadendron giganteum''). As tourism increased, through 1916, the hotel built additional rooms and facilities. In addition, it cut more forest trails, as well as paths along the south fork of the

Merced River The Merced River (), in the central part of the U.S. state of California, is a -long tributary of the San Joaquin River flowing from the Sierra Nevada into the San Joaquin Valley. It is most well known for its swift and steep course through ...

. The hotel is featured prominently in the 1964

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

thriller '' 36 Hours'', starring

James Garner James Garner (born James Scott Bumgarner; April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014) was an American actor. He played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, including ''The Great Escape (film), The Great Escape'' (1963) with Steve McQueen; Paddy ...

and

Eva Marie Saint Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an American actress of film, theatre and television. In a career spanning over 70 years, she has won an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, alongside nominations for a Golden Globe Award and two Brit ...

, in which the hotel serves as a U.S. military hospital in Waldshut,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. On March 1, 2016, the Wawona Hotel was renamed Big Trees Lodge due to a legal dispute between the U.S. government, which owns the property, in conjunction with the new concessionaire,

Aramark Aramark Corporation, known commonly as Aramark, is an American food service, facilities, and uniform services provider to clients in areas including education, healthcare, business, prisons, and leisure. It operates in North America (United S ...

, and the outgoing concessionaire,

Delaware North Delaware North is a global food service and hospitality company headquartered in Buffalo, New York. The company also operates in the lodging, sporting, airport, gambling, and entertainment industries. The company employs over 55,000 people worl ...

, which claimed rights to the trademarked name. The hotel regained its historic name on July 15, 2019, when a settlement was reached in the dispute.

Thomas Hill studio

Thomas Hill (painter) (1829–1908), a renowned landscape painter of the

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. The paintings typically depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area ...

, had a studio at the Wawona Hotel late in life. He used the hotel pavilion as his painting studio and completed numerous works of the region. This is included in the listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Features

The Wawona Hotel is located from the park's south entrance, between the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees and the

Yosemite Valley Yosemite Valley ( ; ''Yosemite'', Miwok for "killer") is a U-shaped valley, glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California. The valley is about long and deep, surroun ...

. It is one of the few historical period hotels still standing within Yosemite National Park's boundaries. Most of the Wawona Hotel's 104 guestrooms open onto one of the hotel's deep

veranda A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''vera ...

s, which wrap around the first and second floors; they have open views of the gardened and natural landscapes. The hotel includes six historically distinctive buildings, built between 1876 and 1916. The rooms are furnished with

antique An antique ( la, antiquus; 'old', 'ancient') is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely ...

s, period pieces, and vintage elements, and have no telephones or televisions in them. Outdoor recreation choices include quiet nature walks or scenic drives, and when snow arrives, nearby cross-country and downhill skiing and snowshoe routes. Across from the hotel is a nine-hole , par 35

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". ...

, Yosemite National Park's only such facility. It is one of the few within any U.S. national park. The course is open daily from spring to fall, weather permitting. In operation since 1918, the golf course is the oldest in the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primar ...

References

External links

* * * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Hotels in California Hotel buildings completed in 1876 History of Mariposa County, California Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Historic Landmarks in California National Register of Historic Places in Mariposa County, California National Register of Historic Places in Yosemite National Park Companies based in Mariposa County, California Hotels established in 1876 1876 establishments in California Historic American Buildings Survey in California Tourist attractions in Mariposa County, California Victorian architecture in California National Park lodges

History

Thomas Hill studio

Features

See also

References

External links