Lake McDonald Lodge Coffee Shop

Did You Know?

• The coffee shop was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 14, 2008, before the usual 50-year requirement, as an exceptional example of Mission 66 design.
• Until its designation, it was considered a non-contributing structure in the Lake McDonald Lodge Historic District.

Description

The Coffee Shop sits east of Lake McDonald Lodge, between the lodge and Going-to-the-Sun Road, on a small hill shaded by mature conifers. The rectangular one-story building, 40 ft by 100 ft, is clad in white stucco over plywood and battened cedar panels. Its most significant feature is a modified hipped roof with glued laminated timber frames on steel columns; the roof has clipped ends echoing the main lodge and a louvered monitor along the ridge, modified from an original cap that could not handle heavy snow.

Eaves extend at both ends. Stucco panels near the entrance display metal sculpture by Gewalt representing the surrounding mountains. Inside, the main dining room occupies the north end, the kitchen the middle, and the employees' dining room (now office and storage) the south end; a lunch counter originally stood near the main entrance. Interior finishes include stained cedar batten panels and vinyl asbestos tile, with an open ceiling and original light fixtures by A.W. Pistol.

Gewalt drew inspiration from the lodge and from Welton Becket's Canyon Village Lodge at Yellowstone; author Alan Hess compared the design to "Coffee Shop Modern," an offshoot of Googie architecture.

Architects and contractors

Brinkman and Lenon, founded shortly after World War II, continued after the founding partners died in 1961 until the firm was sold to the Architects Design Group in the 1990s. The firm also designed the Logan Pass Visitor Center and the Saint Mary Visitor Center, Entrance Station and Checking Stations, plus other structures at West Glacier, Saint Mary and Rising Sun. The Collins Construction Company of Kalispell built the coffee shop at a cost of about $107,000.

Master plan

The Lake McDonald Coffee Shop kicked off a larger expansion of visitor services at the site. A 1955 Mission 66 proposal called for razing every structure except the lodge and replacing them with lodging units of 20 to 70 rooms. Those plans were cut back after the Great Northern Railway, then owner of the Glacier Park Company, balked at the expense. By 1963, the project had shrunk to just a "grill."