When Vint turned his attention to Crater Lake in 1927 to begin a fall-scale planning program for the park, the “village,” espoused earlier by planners as a means of accommodating park visitors, was already in place on the south shore of Crater Lake.[15] At the east end of the site was the hotel, the Crater Lake Lodge, and a stone comfort station built in 1921 for park campers. To the west a short walk, was the rustic Kiser Studio (built in 1921) where visitors obtained their souvenir photographs of the park. Across the way, was the Community House, built in 1924 by the NPS. Such a building had been suggested in 1923, “to encourage visitors to mingle together after sundown.”[16] The Community House provided space for visitors to dance, hear lectures, and participate in other forms of entertainment. A wooded area behind the Community House was formally designated as a campground by the NPS.
Despite this development, the overall appearance of Rim Village was bleak and had been for many years. Park visitors drove their cars in a random fashion all over the area and up to the edge of the steep caldera wall. People walked wherever they desired, including to a precipitous outcrop known as Victor Rock, where they could take in a breathtaking vista of the lake. Campers arbitrarily pitched their tents after driving around the campground looking for suitable sites. With all of the indiscriminate activity, the landscape of Rim Village suffered. Trees were used as bumpers for automobiles; vegetation was practically non-existent from trampling by visitors and/or their cars; and the nature of the site’s soil combined with the prevailing winds, often created an unbearably dusty and dirty environment. NPS designers went so far as to describe the area as a “pumice desert” and “an unattractive sand waste.”[17]
The intent of Vint’s plan was to improve the appearance of the landscape, eliminate safety hazards with respect to cars, reduce dust, and simplify traffic and parking problems by spreading people out across the site. The plan focused on three components: buildings; landscape; and circulation. With regard to buildings, the park concessioner (who had built two of the three existing buildings) had plans for additional structures, including a cafeteria and store, and twenty-two rental cabins, at the far west end of Rim Village. The circulation component of the plan proposed a pedestrian trail to be laid along the edge of the rim for the full length of the village, and trails to be built leading down to the lakeshore and up to Garfield Peak from the Rim Village. Vint felt that this rim walk would be one of the most important units of the rim area development, and its center of attraction would be the lookout designed for Victor Rock, complete with a rustic stairway and ramps. The landscape component of the plan focused on reclaiming the “pumice desert” by restoring the area’s natural grasses and wildflowers. It was hoped that this planting program would bring back the site’s original beauty and once again be in harmony with its natural surroundings. Other structures and features, including paved parking areas north of the cafeteria, south of the lodge, and a road with parking revetments linking the two main lots, were also incorporated into the design proposal for Rim Village. In 1928 a new road to Rim Village was completed altering the visitor’s entry sequence to the west end of the site. However, Vint saw this as an improvement, for it would help distribute traffic at the rim. Vint noted that this new road approach was “one of the most powerful factors, having an influence on the general layout” programmed for the village.[18]
In general, the design intent of the first general development plan was to create an aesthetic and functional environment for visitors through non-intrusive design. The overall development would appear natural, as though the vegetation added to enhance the site had always been there, and the buildings and curving walks belonged in the landscape. Orderliness would prevail. Of utmost importance was to refrain from overdevelopment, but develop all services intensively in one area so the rest of the park could remain intact and “virgin.” Vint’s long-term vision for the village included the development of the open desert area west of the Community House into a plaza where all services and facilities would be located. He wanted to relocate the Kiser Studio to this area, a site away from the rim and thus more visually appropriate. Vint also hoped that a new Community House could be erected in this plaza, designed in a more sensitive manner than the existing structure.[19]
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