- Site Type:
- Park Roads and Bridges, Parks and Recreation
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Temporary Emergency Relief Act (NY only)
- Started:
- 1933
- Completed:
- 1941
- Designer:
- L.D. Cox
- Quality of Information:
- Good
- Marked:
- Yes
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The early development of Gilbert State Park included a complex of stone buildings designed by L.D. Cox. A CCC camp was located here in 1933-41, and workers substantially increased the park’s facilities, constructing a tourist camp, shelters, and more than twenty wood-frame cabins with wavy-edged siding. Cabins were built in three different plans and two sizes, accommodating either four or six people. The smaller ones were modest, while the larger cabins had more elaborate interior finishes. The CCC program also included construction of dams, a wildlife refuge, a pond for waterfowl propagation, a deer yard, walks, roads and bridle paths, a nursery, a gravity-fed water system, and erosion control projects.
The park includes the New York State Civilian Conservation Corps Museum, which features memorabilia, photographs, printed materials and exhibits about the works of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the park and in other parks in New York and the United States.
Source notes
The Preservationist Volume 8, No. 1 Spring/Summer 2004 (https://www.webcitation.org/5ZdM85NHp?url=https://www.nysparks.state.ny.us/news/public/archive/Preservationist/2004_SpringPreserv.pdf), accessed May 2020.
Wikipedia: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Lake_State_Park), accessed May 2020.
Site originally submitted by Douglass Halvorsen on May 10, 2020.
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I’ve stayed in the Gilbert Lake cabins several times, and have been intrigued by the architectural details, even down to the wrought-iron castings of door and window hinges. Are there any documented plans for these cabins, or source materials for their construction?
Thanks for any help.
Bob Hall-App