'You Are Here' - Headquarters and Museum Area - Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado - 'You Are Here' Maps on Waymarking.com

My Commentary:
This area is nothing but well-marked with informational signage and maps. This map is well placed between the Museum and the Chief Ranger's Office and points visitors to the trail leading to the Spruce Tree Cliff Dwellings - the main highlight of the area. The buildings in this area are part of a National Landmark District.

Text on Map:

Mesa Verde National Park	National Park Service	(seal of National Park Service)
	U.S. Department of the Interior

Headquarters and Museum Area

(right side - picture of construction of museum)
(picture caption)
Construction work was well under way on an addition to the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum in 1936. Stone Masons Harry Boxstrom and Birch Baskett built many of the park's stone buildings. Park carpenter Alwin Moelnar sculpted many of the doors and windows for the buildings in the late 1930s.

(main text)
Modified Pueblo Revival Architecture at Mesa Verde

In 1920, park visitors were greeted by an array of rundown structures in the area. One of the first challenges for the new Park Superintentent Jesse Nusbaum and his wife. Aileen, was to construct new facilities. Inspiration came from noted Southwest architects John Gaw Meem, Mary J. Colter, and Issac Hamilton Rapp. The style they perfected was based on original Pueblo buildings. It included smooth sandstone and mortar walls, decorative vigas, (beams) and adze-worked wood features on the exterior and interior of the buildings. Each detail was designed to create structures that were in harmony with the nearby cliff dwellings and surrounding landscape.

(picture of map, legend, trail tips, and locations of locations nearby)

Included in this Landmark nomination for the Mesa Verde Administrative District are the superintendent's residence, the post office, the park headquarters building, the old community building (now the ranger station), the museum, and the ranger club (now the park library). All of the buildings are constructed in the pueblo revival style, although many of the details of these structures are derived from prehistoric sources rather than historic ones. The structures are near the edge of Spruce Tree Canyon on the top of the mesa in a fragrant pinon and juniper forest.

These six buildings contain a series of common architectural elements that characterize their style. The principal building material of these structures is sandstone, some of which was reused from prehistoric structures. The stone is usually laid in courses with mud mortar nearly flush with the stone, giving the walls a relatively smooth appearance. The walls have a slight batter and average 18 inches in thickness. Parapets surround the flat roofs of the buildings. The load-bearing walls support simple roof structures of peeled beams (vigas) which protrude through the masonry to the exterior. The vigas on the interior support half-round saplings or split-wood slats (latias) with cedar bark above. The latias in these buildings are for decorative purposes, since a wood decking and built-up roof are the true sheltering portions. The irregular building plans for these simply engineered structures result directly from the shapes of the rooms and their configuration. This "form-follows function" method of building is typical of both prehistoric and historic pueblo structures, and is used quite appropriately in these revival structures. Larger pieces of woodwork on the buildings—lintels, squared beams, doors, and the like—have adz marks adding texture and a pioneer type of character to the buildings. Interiors have plastered walls, corner fireplaces typical of the southwest, and sometimes flagstone floors and built-in bancos (benches). Pierced-tin lighting fixtures based on Spanish-Colonial and Mexican designs further contribute to the exotic feeling.

- National Register Application

Location Name: Headquarters and Museum Area

Visit Instructions:

A photo of either you or your GPS at the site is welcomed but not required.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   04/08/2021 sara et gege visited it