Shenandoah National Park seeks input on Big Meadows

The National Park Service is seeking public input into the proposed removal of five buildings in the Big Meadows area known as the Big Meadows Cottages or Maids Cabins.

The cabins sit behind the Crescent Rock Cottage. The Virginia Sky-Line Company built Cottage A and B around 1933 and Cottage C, D, and E around 1939; all were constructed and located at Swift Run Gap, approximately 14 miles south of Big Meadows. In 1955, the Virginia Sky-Line Company moved the cottages to their present location, removed the original porches, and added a bathroom extension to the rear of each building. These cottages are contributing structures in the Skyland Drive National Historic Landmark District (entered in the National Register of Historic Places on September 19, 1997, amended October 6, 2008). The period of significance for the district is 1931-1952.

The park’s business partners at Big Meadows used these buildings as employee housing and, for the last 10 years, as storage. In 2013, the park reacquired control of the buildings. The cottages are currently in poor condition. The park does not have an identified purpose for these cabins and cannot justify the cost to rehabilitate them for another potential use. The “Draft Cultural Landscape Report for Big Meadows” (2015) recommends removal of these cabins. Aside from the poor condition of the cabins, the report states “…they were not part of the National Park Service master plan for Big Meadows…As employee housing, they were never a highly visible element of the landscape and were not essential elements of the historic Big Meadows development.”

Shenandoah National Park currently maintains approximately 300 historic structures across the entire park.  After the proposed removal of the buildings, the area will be restored with native vegetation.

We welcome any comments you may have about the project and its effects to historic properties and the human environment as part of scoping for the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). The public has the opportunity to comment on the proposed action for a 30-day period ending on August 15, 2016. Maps and photographs of the cottages may be found online at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/SHEN.

Comments should be posted online at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/SHEN or sent to: Superintendent, Shenandoah National Park, Attn: Big Meadows Cottages, 3655 U.S. Highway, 211 East, Luray, VA 22835.