Gallery & Gift Shop
OUR HISTORIC BUILDING

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Opened in 1866, the first Volcano House Hotel with thatched walls and roof sat at the crater's edge. It replaced a 12'x18' one-room grass shelter erected in 1846 for visitors.		An all-wooden Volcano House, built by William Lentz, superceded the thatched hotel in 1877. It was the first Western style building in the Volcano area, with 6 guest rooms.
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By 1891, the hotel was so successful that a two-story addition became the main part of the hotel, adding 14 rooms and transforming the 1877 structure (on the right) into a wing.		In 1921, an impressive two-story wing took the place of the 1877 structure, which was literally sawn apart and relocated as an annex. The 115 room building burned to the ground in 1940.
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After serving myriads of purposes, the disintegrating 1877 structure was rescued by the Volcano Art Center and National Park Service in the 1970s . Today, our Gallery calls this refurbished, historic building home.		See a floor plan of the Volcano Art Center Gallery, which includes a description of numbered areas of interest relating to the history of the 1877 Volcano House Hotel.

Learn more about the history of the 1877 Volcano House in an in-depth article