Union Pacific Dining Lodge

As tourism blossomed during the first decades of the twentieth century, the Union Pacific Railroad considered how to better accommodate travelers. Officials conceived the idea of building restaurants and pavilions architecturally similar to the monumental lodges being constructed in national parks.

Acclaimed architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood, whose mastery of the Rustic style set the standard for national park architecture, designed this splendid dining lodge for the Union Pacific. Completed in 1926, it was an intermediate project built while Underwood was designing the world-renowned Ahwahnee Hotel at Yosemite National Park.

The Rustic style of this lodge, its wood and welded tuff in grand harmony with the landscape, echoes that of the famed hotel. Featuring mammoth walk-in fireplaces, the multi-level interior is characteristic of Underwood’s designs. As part of a national collection of Underwood’s work, the lodge gains added significance as a rare surviving example of a railroad dining hall constructed to mimic park architecture.