Description of Historic Place

Description of Place
Honeymoon Cabin is a rustic style, simple, one-room cabin with a gabled roof extending over the entrance on log purlins to shelter the raised wooden porch. It is located in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, adjacent to a glacier fed mountain stream and surrounded by a forest filled with spruce and white bark pine at an elevation of 7,100 feet in a clearing on the Banks of Little Pipestone Creek at Skoki Lodge in Banff National Park. It was constructed during the management tenure of well known Banff artists and philanthropists who sponsored the 1932 expansion, Peter and Catherine Whyte, and was one of the earlier two structures built to provide additional accommodation very shortly after construction of the main building. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

Honeymoon Cabin is a Classified Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations and its architectural and environmental values.

Historical Value
Honeymoon Cabin is a very good illustration of the national historic theme of recreation and tourism and its development in Canada's National Parks. The first such facility to operate on a commercial basis in Canada, Honeymoon Cabin, as part of the facility, was built specifically to cater to the growing number of ski-tourists shortly after the construction of the main lodge in Banff National Park and represents the pioneering phase of skiing as a major recreational activity in North America. Skoki Ski Lodge remains a major destination point within the park where Honeymoon Cabin continues to accommodate park visitors from all over the world.

Architectural Value
Honeymoon Cabin is a very good example of the rustic design tradition in Canadian National Parks and winter resort construction. It serves as an example of an original traditional log design and construction using local materials and workmanship long associated with the Banff region.

Environmental Value
Honeymoon Cabin's picturesque mountain setting, layout of the buildings and their relationship to each other, historic trails, footpaths and unspoiled setting reinforce its historical relationship to the site. It remains on its original site and maintains its original physical and functional relationship to the other buildings, the site and its natural surroundings. Honeymoon Cabin acts as a visual landmark for tourists in the park and is a well known skiing and hiking destination for travelers. Access to the site is restricted to traditional methods of transportation thus maintaining its original remote wilderness quality.

Sources:
Kate Macfarlane, Skoki Ski Lodge, Banff National Park, Alberta. Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office Building Report 96-105.

Honeymoon Cabin, Skoki Ski Lodge, Banff National Park, Alberta. Heritage Character Statement 96-105.

Character-Defining Elements

The following character defining elements of Honeymoon Cabin should be respected:

Its rustic aesthetic and traditional log design construction as manifested in:
- Its simple and plain massing as a single-room gable-roofed cabin.
- Wood as the predominant construction material with locally hewn spruce logs as the bulk of construction material.
- The walls of unscribed horizontal log construction with saddle-notched corners.
- The roof extended on log purlins over the entrance sheltering the raised wooden porch.
- Entrance door centered on the front gabled end.
- A single window centered on each side elevations and small asymmetrically placed windows located on the back elevation.
- Multi-paned front windows, one on each side of the door.
- The patina of weathered wood.
- Multi-paned windows, the plank door and the tongue-and-groove floorboards constructed of milled lumber components.

The manner in which Honeymoon Cabin reinforces the picturesque character of the mountain park setting.