Moosilauke Ravine Lodge replacement - project approved

[David Metsky]

Dartmouth's Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, built in 1938, is scheduled to be dismantled after First Year Trips in Sept 2016. The replacement lodge will be built in the next 11 months and the new building should be open for First Year Trips in Sept 2017.

MRL has lived an amazing life, well beyond its expected span. Repairs at this point are becoming constant and extensive, and the structure doesn't meet the needs of the Dartmouth community with respect to accessibility, safety, functionality, sustainability, and energy use. The new building will not be exactly like the flythrough video below, but it gives a good feel of what the final product will look like.

Sad to see the old girl go, but excited about the new Lodge.

 

[billski]

I am sad too David. Just reading about it over the weekend. Maybe I'll go stay overnight one last time in the lodge. Are the trail signs up for grabs? not!

 

[David Metsky]

Are the trail signs up for grabs?

The trail signs already have a place in the new building.

 

[Stan]

Handicap accessibility?

That bake oven outside looks interesting. I'd be curious to hear from anyone whose built or used one.

What kind of logs was the old lodge built from and is there any salvageable material for a smaller project?

 

[David Metsky]

The current MRL was build from spruce cut up in Jobildunc Ravine in 1937 and brought down to the building site ahead of the hurricane of 1938. If they waited one more year to cut the logs the timber probably would have been lost. There are lots of ideas about using materials from the old lodge in the new building. Don't get to hung up on the particulars of the fly through - it was a concept piece not the actual design. Although the structure in the video is pretty close to the plans.

And yes, the building will be fully ADA compliant.

 

[skiguy]

Sorry to see it go but better safe than sorry. Just wish they would reinstall the old rope tow while their at it.

http://iabsi.com/ski/Moosilauke Ski Area/Moosilauke Ski Area.doc

 

[peakbagger]

I expect that many of the old structural timbers will yield a lot of nice boards with tight grain. It hard to reuse old timbers for structural reasons, one approach is put in modern structure and then hide it with old wood while another approach is to let the new structure become something folks will remember 50 years down the road. The old building can live on by its wood being used to make wainscoting, furniture and trim. Unfortunately if the wood was too far gone sometimes there is far less reclaimed wood than expected.

The new buildings installed on site already seem to be well built and attractive, the project sure sounds like its in good hands and am excited to see the new building.

 

[Creag Nan Drochaid]

I have no doubt that there is enough love for the old lodge among the Dartmouth community that they will re-use and otherwise honor it in any way they can. My father Cliff Sanborn was a teamster who worked for the them college forester Robert Scott Monahan starting in 1937 IIRC from what he told me forty years ago, thus he may have drawn the spruce down the ravine with a logging sled and a two-horse team. I definitely recall him saying that he was sent to Moosilauke in the late 1950s to run the rope tow, which may have been used for DOC activities and races after it was no longer commercially viable.

 

[David Metsky]

All the exterior timbers have been bathed in creosote for years, so the uses for those may be limited.

 

[Ken MacGray]

From a Facebook post just now:

"Moosilauke Ravine Lodge closed for business after breakfast this morning. For those of us present, who have spent a third of a century or more visiting and working there, it was a bittersweet goodbye. The road will be closed at a new gate halfway up from Route 118, with a new hiker parking area. The lodge will be emptied of memorabilia today, and torn down over the next few weeks. A brand new lodge will be constructed on the same site and will open next September. All trails will remain open."

 

[Seeker]

It would be interesting to see the demolition--interesting and certainly sad. Many great memories there. But it is time. I look forward to seeing the new building.

 

[David Metsky]

Nice update on the current construction - https://news.dartmouth.edu/news/2017/02/tall-timbers-big-boulders-moosilauke-lodge-rises

 

[Jazzbo]

On 4/9/2017 I went up Moosilauke via Gorge Brook Trail and took this snap shot progress photo of the lodge. I haven't seen the lodge in long time, but it seems very reminiscent of the old building. Looking good!!!