Missouri Historic Architecture

Depression Era Park Rustic Architecture, 1933-1942

Characteristics:

• Rustic park designs were intended to blend into their surrounding environments in both a natural and cultural sense; at their best, these designs appeared to be a natural outgrowth of their park settings.
• Buildings were simple in design and small in scale and intended to be practical and efficient. The construction was to be straightforward with "no faking."
• Colors such as warm browns were employed to subordinate buildings in their settings.
• Horizontal lines and low silhouettes were emphasized.
• The Park Rustic Style was applied to a variety of buildings and structures within local and state park settings including dining lodges, picnic shelters, tourist cabins, group camps, bath houses, comfort stations, restrooms, lookout shelters, entrance gates, stone bridges, and even park offices and administration and service buildings.
• Construction timbers and stone were obtained locally and were worked in a rough form reflecting native hewing, sawing, and dressing techniques.
• The handmade rustic look typically reflected the labor-intensive manner in which buildings and structures were erected - usually by large crews of enrollees of New Deal programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA).