“The U.S. Engineer's Office building (1903), designed by the St. Paul architectural firm of Reed and Stem, is a distinctive, two-story, rock-faced ashlar, gray sandstone building. The building is notable for its pyramidal hipped roof clad with green clay tiles, massive stone chimneys, and bellcast eaves. This roof configuration resulted in the building being nicknamed "the Pagoda." The building is almost square in plan and has battered walls that taper in thickness from two feet at the top of the water table to one foot at the roof plate. A distinctive feature of the stone work is the use of dressed stone for quoins, window and door surrounds, and the water table.”
“The symmetrical facade (southeast) has a projecting central porch with a hipped roof that mimics the main roof and is supported by two battered, dressed stone columns. The porch frieze is inscribed "United States Engineer Office." A set of concrete steps provides access to the porch from three sides. The central entrance has paneled double doors and a narrow single-light transom. Flanking the porch on the first and second stories are windows with single-light transoms. A twenty-four-light fixed window is centered above the porch(the window, added in1918, replaced an emblem of the U.S. Engineers on the wall). On the northwest (rear) is a large central entrance with double doors topped with a single-light transom. A small, hipped roof dormer is located in the center of the roof and a wood access ramp has been added to the rear entrance.”
“The building has significant interior details, including rich oak doors, door and window surrounds, moldings, baseboards,and a turned baluster stair case. The central hallway retains the original globe/wrought-iron light fixtures.”
Above description comes from the Historic District Registration Form on the NPS website: (
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Fort Yellowstone was included in the Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District which was placed on the National Register on March 20, 2002. On July 31, 2003, the Fort Yellowstone Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in the special status of a National Historic Landmark. National Historic Landmarks are nationally significant historic places designated by the Secretary of the Interior because they possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States. The Fort Yellowstone Historic District includes over 40 contributing structures.
All of the red-roofed, many-chimneyed buildings in the Mammoth area are part of historic Fort Yellowstone. Beginning in 1886, after 14 years of poor civilian management of the park, the Cavalry was called upon to manage the park's resources and visitors. Because the Cavalry only expected to be here a short while, they built a temporary post near the base of the Terraces called Camp Sheridan. After five cold, harsh winters, they realized that their stay in the park was going to be longer than expected, so they built Fort Yellowstone, a permanent post. There were three stages of construction at Fort Yellowstone. The first set of clapboard buildings were built in 1891, the second set in 1897 as the Fort expanded to a two-troop fort, and, finally, the stone buildings were built in 1909 making the fort's capacity 400 men or four troops. By 1916, the National Park Service was established, and the Cavalry gave control of Yellowstone back to the civilians. After a short time away, the Cavalry returned in 1917 and finished their duty completely in 1918. Since that time, historic Fort Yellowstone has been Yellowstone's headquarters.