Rosemary Inn

Our campus features a dining hall and meeting rooms in the historic Rosemary Inn.

• Located on the shores of Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park, near Port Angeles, Washington
• Founded by Rose Littleton in 1914
• Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979
• One of only 2 remaining resorts of the many that bordered Lake Crescent at the beginning of the 20^th century
  

Rose Littleton, Founder

• Arrived in Port Angeles in 1898, lured by reports of beautiful scenery, temperate climate and fantastic business opportunities
• Operated several restaurants, including one in the Marymere Hotel
• Purchased 15 acres from Paul Barnes in early 1900's to start a resort camp
• Built Rosemary Camp in 1914 after fire destroyed Marymere Hotel
• Combined her first name with that of her lifelong associate Mary Daum to create camp's name
• Registered first guests June 20,1914
  

Early Business

• First visitors took a seven-hour ferry ride to Port Angeles, then rode in a touring car for the final 20 miles to Rosemary
• With the 1922 completion of Olympic Highway, along the south shore of Lake Crescent, registration doubled to nearly 800 guests that summer
  

Five-star Hospitality and Prominent Guests

As business grew Rosemary Camp developed into Rosemary Inn and attracted prominent guests, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, with

• Private dining tables
• Tennis and croquet courts and equipment
• Fishing boats
• Evening entertainment, including skits

June 15, 1946, many dignitaries attended the dedication ceremony of the Olympic National Park, held on the lawn at Rosemary, just a few years after Littleton sold the inn to the park service.

Rosemary Inn is a reused facility

Built in the 1910s, the “Rosemary Inn” resort served for decades as private lodging for vacationers from places like Seattle, Port Angeles, and beyond.  In time this role was filled by the Lake Crescent Lodge and other relatively modern establishments.  Seeking to improve services to the public and find an adaptive re-use of this site, Olympic National Park invited NatureBridge to establish an educational institute on Barnes Point; in 1987, Olympic Park Institute was born.  By using and maintaining the pre-existing structures between here and Lake Crescent, Olympic Park Institute has consumed only a modest amount of timber and other natural resources, and kept most of the surrounding forest intact.