Mount Rainier’s Paradise Inn Reopens After 19-Month Restoration

It snowed, sleeted and rained through a layer of hazy fog up on Mount Rainier Friday, the same day of Paradise Inn and Annex’s grand reopening celebration.

Crowds of people packed into the building to escape the elements and to bear witness to the beginning of a new era for the inn, also a noted national landmark building. For the past 19 months, the snug abode underwent approximately $24 million-worth of remodeling. 

”Welcome to Paradise,” said an enthusiastic Chip Jenkins, superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park. “And yes, it does rain in Paradise, or snow … I think really what is most appropriate in terms of welcoming you is actually inviting people who have actually been here in this ecosystem and landscape for close to 10,000 years.”

With that, Jenkins welcomed Hanford McCloud, a member of the Nisqually Indian Tribal Council, and Mike Iyall, a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribal Council, to give their own greetings to those in attendance.

“It’s an honor to be a representative of our people,” McCloud said. “To come back up here to a place that I heard stories of growing up — how beautiful it was, the connection we had to this mountain, of who she was to us.”

To honor the mountain, upon which Paradise Inn has rested since 1916, McCloud brought forth his Nisqually Canoe Family to perform a series of traditional songs and dances. They performed one at the beginning of the celebration, and two at the end.

Paradise Inn has been part of Mount Rainier’s history for more than 100 years, and the Annex attached to it has been around almost as long — since 1920.

While the main part of the inn was most recently renovated from 2006 to 2008, the Annex got the facelift this time. It started in early August 2017 and continued through late March of this year.

Dr. Allyson Brooks, who is the Washington state preservation officer and the executive director of Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, defended the National Park Service’s decision to spend more than $24 million on the Annex’s renovation.

“Why wouldn’t we spend money on our own American history and the places that we’re a part of, and the story of us Americans and how we related to our landscape … It’s places like Paradise Inn that give us access to the beautiful landscape of the United States that is symbolized by the incredible Mount Rainier or Olympic National Park. People come from all over to see these places so I’ve really got to give kudos to the National Park Service for putting funds into restoring the Paradise Inn.”

During the time of the Annex’s renovation, only four work days were missed due to threat of avalanche on the winding road leading to the structure. But for the most part, there was a mighty caravan of cars and equipment from Tacoma’s Korsmo Construction, contractors and subcontractors traversing the mountain day in and day out to get the job done on time.

John Korsmo, owner of Korsmo Construction, said his company had to raise the Annex about 4 feet off the ground with hydraulic lifts to expose a rubble foundation underneath the building. Next, they hauled about 300 dump trucks full of the rubble out from underneath the Annex before pouring a new foundation, lowering the building back down and fastening the two of them together.

Before they did this, the workers removed the original exterior ornamental stones, and then replaced them exactly the way they were after the foundation was finished, according to a media release.

A total of 57 original windows were retained during the course of the project and three and a half floors of historic crown moulding were uncovered, preserved and rehabilitated. To restore these original features, the workers had to battle black mold and tear down unoriginal ceiling tiles. During this process, the original ceiling height was restored.

Korsmo also rehabilitated the historic trim on the windows and doors for the guest rooms.

In addition to some cosmetic changes like lighter paint colors and replacing light bulbs with more energy efficient ones, the building was also brought up to seismic code. 

“This project, this project alone, is a great example,” Korsmo said. “I think It’s an excellent model, for what can be taken across the country to continue to fund and preserve our national parks, our buildings, our pathways, our trails.”

The National Parks have a deferred maintenance balance of nearly $12 billion dollars as a whole, while Mount Rainier National Park has more than $185 million in maintenance backlog by itself.

Visit https://mtrainerguestservices.com for information about booking a room at Paradise Inn and Annex.