Both the park and Crater Lake Lodge were closed for most of World War II. After the war, park visitation increased dramatically, as did business at the lodge. However, age and many years of neglect took a heavy toll on the building.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the National Park Service continually prodded, with mixed results, the lodge’s owners to upgrade utilities and fire prevention measures. After fifty years of severe winters on the caldera’s edge, the lodge’s inadequate structural system was showing signs of advanced deterioration. Cables stretched between the north and south walls to try to keep them from bowing. Floors and ceilings were sagging, and cracks appeared in the masonry. Only small amounts of money were invested in piecemeal fashion to keep the lodge open every summer. This Band-Aid approach left utility systems and life-safety measures lagging behind contemporary codes and standards.
The National Park Service acquired ownership of Crater Lake Lodge in 1967, but the building continued to deteriorate. Despite being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service felt that it was too expensive to fix and maintain. The agency failed to implement a proposal to demolish the building once it found public opinion to save the lodge too strong. Consequently, the agency approved a plan to save Crater Lake Lodge as part of the comprehensive Rim Village Redevelopment Program in 1988.
Engineers contracted by the National Park Service monitored the structural integrity of the lodge through the 1980s. In the spring of 1989, just before the lodge was to open for the summer season, the engineers advised the park that the Great Hall wing was unsafe for occupants. They predicted this part of the building might collapse of its own weight, bringing down the rest of the lodge with it. This compelled the National Park Service to keep the lodge closed and begin a comprehensive rehabilitation project.
The plan to rehabilitate Crater Lake Lodge called for returning the exterior appearance and interior public areas to that of the late 1920s. After nearly two years of planning and design, construction work began in 1991. Some original materials, such as the masonry stones, were salvaged for reuse, but very little of the original building could be saved. The Great Hall wing was dismantled and rebuilt. Most of the rest was gutted. A steel structural support system, utilities, life-safety systems, and modern hotel standards were built into the new facility. The rehabilitation of Crater Lake Lodge was completed in the fall of 1994 at a cost of more than $15,000,000.
On May 20, 1995, Crater Lake Lodge reopened to the public. Patrons and visitors could again enjoy its accommodations and services safely, and in an atmosphere reminiscent of the 1920s. For the first time since its original opening eighty years before, Crater Lake Lodge was a project finally completed.
– Written by Kent J. Taylor, former chief of interpretation, Crater Lake National Park
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