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West Virginia » Eastern Panhandle » Morgan County » Berkeley Springs Vicinity » Cacapon Resort State Park

Cacapon Resort State Park

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1937 and later. West side of U.S. 522, 6 miles south of Berkeley Springs
  • Cacapon Resort State Park (Rhonda Reymond)

This 6,000-acre state park, established in 1937, has traditionally been one of the showcases of West Virginia's impressive park system, as it is the closest to major eastern population centers. Initial construction was accomplished by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) under the supervision of the National Park Service. As would be expected, buildings were designed in the intentionally rustic, naturalistic style then favored for parks. The Old Inn, the first such building in the state park system, is particularly impressive. Its two-story main block and several one-story wings are built of rounded logs, notched at the corners, with board-and-batten siding in the many gable ends. Massive stone chimneys complete the picture. The eighteen similarly constructed cabins dating from CCC days contain built-in furnishings and hand-wrought iron fixtures. Perhaps surprisingly, the CCC-constructed Superintendent's House is a clapboarded Colonial Revival dwelling, typical of middle-class houses of its time, although an impressive stone chimney relates it to other park structures.

In the 1950s, a second stage of development added eleven more cabins and a new fifty-room lodge. Typical of their time, they lack the character and intentional “woodsy” aspect of the earlier buildings. An eighteen-hole golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones opened in 1973, evidence of Cacapon's continuation as a showcase state park.

Writing Credits

Author: 
S. Allen Chambers Jr.

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