Construction of the Community House in 1924 signaled that the NPS had a presence in Rim Village. Initially built as a place for campers to socialize, the structure also allowed the NPS to have a venue for interpretive programs beginning in 1926. Located in the northwestern part of the campground and set against a backdrop of mature coniferous forest, the building faces the Rim Village roadway. It is a two-story, rectangular wood frame structure that has a massive exterior chimney on the east elevation that consists of uncoursed battered stone. Along with a wood shingle roof, multilight windows on the north, south, and west elevations are original decorative features which link this otherwise simple building to other structures in the district.
Battered stone in building exteriors appeared as the NPS began to implement its general development plan which was formulated in 1926. In contrast to the relatively even sizes of rocks throughout the Kiser Studio and Crater Lake Lodge, larger stones began to be placed near the bottom of structures and became progressively smaller as the masonry walls met eaves or gables. As a structural measure, the NPS buildings utilized battered stone as veneer over concrete formwork as a way of providing additional strength for load bearing outer walls. In line with precedents set by the lodge, Kiser Studio, and Community House, the NPS continued to use multilight windows and wood frame construction above the ground floor stone masonry. By 1930 the NPS had reached a stage where it could replicate this type of construction in a visually consistent manner at the appropriate scale. At that time it built a comfort station in back of the cafeteria erected in 1928. Both structures employed battered stone as a defining feature, with the comfort station forming a pleasing complement to the far larger cafeteria. Although the window framing has been replaced by concrete block when the structure became a transformer building in 1971, this former restroom facility retains a gable roof with sugar pine shakes, board and batten siding, and rockwork which appears to have grown from the ground.
Just north of the Kiser Studio is the Sinnott Memorial, a structure perched atop Victor Rock some 50 feet below the main portion of the promenade. It was the first park building to incorporate massive stone masonry in its construction, thus setting the tone for a group of structures and associated landscape features which came about as part of the naturalization program in Rim Village and Munson Valley. Opened in 1931, the Sinnott Memorial is an irregularly shaped building that features an open observation room which provides unobstructed views of the caldera and nearby peaks. A stone parapet is a safety measure but also contains exhibit panels. Double doors provide access from the observation room to a museum, which, when open, supplements interpretation provided at the parapet. Both are encased in concrete formwork, but individual boulders three and four feet in height are used to face the structure and make it seem a part of the caldera’s inner walls.
Massive stone masonry is also the most distinctive feature of a comfort station adjacent to the plaza. Completed in 1938, this rectangular structure differs from the district’s other contributing buildings by incorporating horizontal board siding on its two end gables. This is framed by upright stone masonry on each side which gives way to impressive boulders at the base of the building. Foundation plantings envelope the structure and serve to blend masonry features with the setting.
The other contributing structure in the district is a crenulated wall which delineates the promenade. It consists of stone masonry and runs 3450 linear feet, creating a parapet with three observation bays of varying configurations which extend into the caldera. This was based on NPS designs for stone guard rails which dictated the wall to be 18 inches high and 18 inches thick. Where views of Crater Lake are evident, much of the wall has six inch merlons at regular intervals, so as to vary a potentially monotonous coping line. Masons aimed to have stone, not mortar, dominate the parapet, so they placed the andesite rocks in an irregular pattern of shapes so that segments of the wall varied in pattern and color. This feature effectively unified the design elements in Rim Village and, along with the planting, provided the naturalization program with visual consistency expected by the NPS landscape architects.
