Here is Peace and Quietude - Raipidan Camp - Shenandoah National Park, Virginia - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

This marker is located at Rapidan Camp, the former presidential camp that was occupied during the presidency of Herbert Hoover in 1929-32 that was later occupied by Shenandoah National Park in 1935. A majority of the camp's buildings were razed in 1959 and the last president to camp here was President Carter in the late 1970's.

Visiting Rapidan requires a near two mile hike via a fire road from the Big Meadows developed area in the central district of Shenandoah National Park. Today, upon park scheduling, there are displays and interpretations within The Brown House as well as The Prime Minister’s Cabin. The Creel is currently utilized by volunteers working the exhibits.

Marker Text Reads:
“Here is peace and quietude.”
- President Herbert Hoover

Shortly after his election in 1928, Herbert C. Hoover and his wife, Lou Henry, expressed the desire for a weekend retreat – a place where they could find respite from the demands of Washington life and be rejuvenated by “the blessings of nature.”

Here among the trees and trout streams they established their rustic summer camp.

In the years since the Hoovers left Washington, Rapidan Camp has undergone many changes, the most drastic in the early 1960s when 10 of the 13 original buildings were removed.

In 1928, a dense canopy of trees covered the area. The shade provided the much cooler temperatures the Hoovers sought in the days before air-conditioning. The canopy was dominated by old-growth Eastern Hemlocks that were killed by an evasive insect, the hemlock woolly adalgid. Shenandoah National Park is working to save the remaining few hemlocks and restore character and beauty of the Hoover-era Rapidan Camp.

Today visitors can see an exhibit in the Prime Minister’s cabin and tour the president’s cabin as part of a Ranger Program. The Brown House has been restored and refurnished to capture the atmosphere created by Mrs. Hoover for their many guests. The Creel serves as housing for volunteer overseers.

Five Tents
The Hoovers’ first night at camp was May 18, 1929. The presidential accommodations were five brown army tents on wooden floors. Despite later becoming a solid-sided building, the name “Five Tents” stuck.

Mrs. Hoover’s original instructions called for “good board flooring and a roof, with a boarded strip extending up from the floor perhaps three or four feet, with sides composed of canvas curtains that let up and down.” However, the Hoovers quickly became fond of the camp and decided to make their “tent village” more permanent, replacing the canvas walls with board siding. By early August the Hoovers were already using the camp for official meetings. Their precious retreat soon became an outdoor extension of the nation’s capital.

Group that erected the marker: National Park Service URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link] Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Rapidan Road Syria, VA United States of America 22743

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