Norris Museum - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Posted by: 
Volcanoguy
N 44° 43.585 W 110° 42.219
12T E 523467 N 4952602
The historic Norris Museum building at Norris Junction in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
Waymark Code: WMCVH4
Location: Wyoming, United States
Date Posted: 10/14/2011
Views: 10
The Norris, Madison, and Fishing Bridge Museums listing in the National Register of Historic Places includes three museums which are located at widely separate areas in Yellowstone National Park. The three museums were all designed by Herbert Maier, who at that time was an architect working for the American Association of Museums and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Foundation. All of these facilities were donated to the National Park Service.
The Norris Museum (1929) is the most architecturally imposing of the three museums. Maier's choice of a more dramatic building was appropriate, however, considering the site above the geyser basin and the building's function as the gateway through which visitors would pass to gain access to the overlooks and trails of the basin. The building is a one-story structure, generally rectangular in plan. The central portion, which contains an open-air foyer, is sheltered by a massive clipped-gable roof. The west wing contains an exhibit room and office spaces. The east has two wings--one for exhibits, and one for a small seasonal residence. The hip roofs of the wings and the main gable roof are covered with double courses of long wood shingles. Visitor access is through a covered foyer that is sheltered by the largest roof section. Exhibit rooms are to the left and right, directly off the foyer. Straight through the foyer at the rear of the building is the flagstone terrace overlooking the geyser basin. Stone steps lead down from the building's terrace toward the basin. The stone walls of the building have extreme batters which emphasize the fluid, irregular shapes of the boulders. Outlookers and brackets are exposed at the gable ends. The wall above the stone portion is wood, finished with double rows of wood shingles. Massive posts on the interior are again exposed, with their knots and growths worn smooth by the thousands of visitors who run their hands across them each summer as they pass through the building. "Norris Museum" is spelled out in wrought iron letters that hang from a beam at the entrance. Interior walls are covered with drop-channel siding. The log roof structure is exposed throughout the building, except in the residence.
Information comes from: (
visit link)