McKinley Park Hotel (demolished) – Denali National Park AK

Description

Construction of the McKinley Park Hotel began on July 12, 1937 and was largely completed in 1938.  The New Deal’s Public Works Administration (PWA) contributed $350,000 to the project, and the Alaska Railroad contributed an additional $100,000.  “The main building of the unit, designed and constructed under the supervision of the National Park Service [NPS], contains 90 guest rooms with accommodations for 120 to 160 persons, dining room facilities, and a lobby. In addition, there is a dormitory for employees, a power house, water reservoir, and provisions for other utilities” (Report of the Governor of Alaska).

The hotel was not very stylish, which irritated U.S. Secretary of the Interior and PWA Administrator Harold Ickes.  On a visit, Ickes “expressed great disappointment in the hotel’s design, saying it looked like a factory and he expected to hear a shift-change whistle blow. With Tom Vint [from the NPS] and the railroad’s Otto Ohlson in tow, Ickes strode through the site demanding modifications of the building—more rooms, enlargement of lobby and dining areas—and told them they were to see to it personally and directly” (Denali, Historic Resource Study, NPS).

The McKinley Park Hotel was first managed by the federally-owned Alaska Railroad, and then by the NPS. During World War II and the Korean War, the U.S. military took over the hotel and used it as a rest and recreation facility for soldiers and defense workers.

In its initial years, the hotel was not a successful year-round operation.  However, “As access to the park entrance developed, tourism and hotel visitation increased.  The Denali Highway was completed in 1957 and connected the park to Alaska’s road system. High demand for hotel rooms and anticipation of the George Parks Highway completion led to the hotel’s 48-room wing expansion in 1970” (“The McKinley Park Hotel,” NPS).

On September 3, 1972, disaster struck.  A fire caused by faulty wiring destroyed the hotel.  Hundreds were evacuated safely and there were no serious injuries or deaths. However, many artworks were destroyed, including 41 paintings by WPA artists Arthur Kerrick, Antonio Mattei, Carl Saxild, Prescott Jones, Merlin Pollock, Vernon Smith, and others.

A second hotel was soon constructed, using some of the surviving structures from the PWA-funded hotel, but it closed down in 2001.  The NPS notes that “if you look next to the northeast side of the Denali Visitor Center parking lot you can see the McKinley Park Hotel Powerhouse that was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The building is the only structural evidence remaining of the original hotel that hosted so many of the park’s visitors and contributed to so many memories of visitors and employees during the middle of the 20th century” (“The McKinley Park Hotel,” NPS).