Lake Tahoe’s Mid-Century Cabins are ‘In Season’
By National Trust for Historic Preservation on July 15th, 2010Written by Emily Koller
Classic mid-century cabin in Rubicon Bay on the California side of Lake Tahoe.
Architecture, like food, is seasonal. And right now, mid-century cabins at Lake Tahoe are in season.
On my first trip to the region a few years ago, I experienced one of those wonderful architectural surprises a critic will never forget. For some reason, I had this idea in my head that the Lake Tahoe shoreline would look like a mountain version of Las Vegas. While casinos hover in South Lake Tahoe and enormous new vacation homes surround the lake, much of the area looks like it did fifty years ago. Dozens of small roadside motels line the highways and many of the subdivisions miraculously have maintained a scale and feel from the late 50s and early 60s when the postwar vacation industry thrived.
Lake Tahoe’s story can fascinate many: environmentalists, planners, historic preservationists, outdoor enthusiasts and gold mine historians all find some portion of it appealing. Pioneers began to settle throughout Tahoe Basin in the 1840s with the area experiencing the widespread boom of the gold rush. Timber was big business, with much of the forests devastated by the end of the 1800s to supply lumber and fuel to the Comstock Mines in Virginia City, Nevada. Once the land lost value from the deforestation, entrepreneurs bought cheap and constructed exclusive hotels and vacation homes.
After World War II, more cars and improved roadways brought an influx of the middle class and Tahoe lost its exclusivity. Popular campgrounds and inexpensive motels sprouted up, while subdivided land sold for reasonable figures. Not surprisingly, this growth almost immediately impacted the clarity of Tahoe’s famous blue water. Grassroots efforts successfully led to the creation of the League to Save Lake Tahoe in 1957. In 1970, a group of preservationists and residents came together to form the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) to regulate growth and protect the lake, a textbook case study for planners.
An updated mid-century cabin overlooking the lake in Rubicon Bay.
I had the pleasure of staying in Rubicon Bay on the California side with a family that has been coming to this same subdivision for 50 years; in fact, they purchased their land and built the cabin in 1962 for about $40,000. Their memories from summers at Tahoe are rich – filled with salami sandwiches on the beach and long hikes with chocolate in the pocket. Many cabins have stayed with these families and the next generation has grown up together.
There are plenty of stories from residents about the stranger who bought the 1950s cabin on the water, tore it down, and built an enormous contemporary “cabin” replete with massive vaulted ceilings and too many moose antlers. The cabin will be used, at the most, one month a year. Many are also renovated to a point that no era is recognizable. However, there are a slew of fabulously intact and well-loved cabins built between 1950 and 1970.
The mid-century architecture around Lake Tahoe suffers from two problems the Modernism and Recent Past program works to address. The first is that the real estate is worth far more than the existing buildings. Due to the good work of many advocates and organizations at crucial points in history, most of the land around the lake is publicly owned. The small percentage that is private property – spread across many jurisdictions – is regulated closely through the TRPA. As the original owners pass away, it is difficult for families to hang onto the property facing the prospect of a very significant return if sold. The South Lake Tahoe market average home price is over $500,000; a prime piece of lakefront property in Rubicon Bay recently sold for $11 million. A tiny 1950s cabin on the water has very little chance of survival.
The second problem is that of the many layers of history surrounding the lake, the postwar boom and the resulting environmental degradation is not one that many care to celebrate. The gold rush and logging days evoke the grit of the old west while the success of the environmental battles is far more inspiring. However, the carefree vacation days of the recent past era represent a history that will continue to grow more appealing – that of family and community, and a deep connection to a place. Tahoe is not a Las Vegas; its campground culture still overwhelms the resort culture. Generating some awareness for the historical value of the subdivisions – both their architecture and the communities they created – may be all that is needed to save some of the great examples of Tahoe’s recent past.
Emily Koller is a Community and Regional Planning and Historic Preservation graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin. She is interning as the M + RP’s summer program assistant in the Western Office.
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