NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Park and Recreation Structures

BOATHOUSES which do not incorporate other park facilities are the exception rather than the rule. Structural facilities providing for boating and bathing are so often housed under one roof, resulting in a combination building designated a water-front building, that two separate classifications here may seem unwarranted.

The boathouse proper implies space allocation for the storage of boats, for their painting and repair, and lockers for motors, oars, paddles, and other boating gear, as well as the effects of the boaters while they are on the water. Inclusion of lounge, office space, and shower and toilet rooms depends upon the elaborateness of conception of the boathouse and its remoteness from such facilities elsewhere provided in the park. Sometimes linked with the boathouse is a shelter, effecting increased usefulness to the boating public.

In no other park building is the foundation of such importance as in the boathouse. It can be only as long-lived as its substructure, and the hazards of high water and swift current and the threat from ice in northerly climates should be appraised and guarded against in construction. In the boathouse there is no virtue in economical construction below the high water level.

On a lake or river of widely fluctuating water level, due to tide or flood conditions, the boathouse is often built out from the shore or bank so that it is usable at low water stage and is reached by a runway from the high water shore line.

Some form of landing or dock is usually auxiliary to the boathouse. This may extend out to deep water to permit the mooring of larger craft, or merely to reach beyond the shore line at low water. Again, the landing may be more useful as a platform paralleling the boathouse on the water-front side. Especially is this desirable where canoes must be pulled out of the water and berthed under cover when not in use. Where the water stage is variable within suitably narrow limitations, such a dock or incline is often hinged to the boathouse structure and its outer edge is permitted to float, so that the inclination changes with the rise and fall of the water. Too wide a variation in water level will naturally preclude the use of such a landing. A smooth, steep incline, when drenched with water, offers uncertain footing to those straining to haul a heavy boat ashore. Rollers for skidding the boats and cleats for a firm foothold are especially useful in connection with such landings. Another provision to meet the exigencies of a changing water level is a stepped landing.

In instances of broad shallow beaches and varying shore line, a floating dock for mooring boats may be the best solution. Such a facility may or may not incorporate slips for small craft. Floated by means of logs, kegs, or other buoyage, it is connected with the shore by a runway. There is the advantage of mobility, for such a pier can be shifted about as conditions may require. Secure anchorage is vital to a landing of this type.

It is highly desirable to remove canoes from the water when not in actual use, and to store them indoors. It is usual to provide racks three tiers high for this purpose. The equivalent of barn doors on the water side of the boathouse gives the fullest possible opening to the platform or incline. The moving of canoes in and out with a minimum of damage, to them is made possible by such an arrangement. Rowboats, other than delicate racing shells, are customarily kept in the water during their season of use and are berthed under shelter only out of season. Slips for each rowboat are, of course, the ideal provision.

The floors of the boathouse proper and of docks, runways, and inclines in connection should be of woods that do not deteriorate rapidly when subjected to alternate drenching and drying out in the sun. Ample natural ventilation and floor boards spaced well apart will facilitate drying out and check the tendency to rot out quickly.

• Plate II I—1 — Plate II I—9