FRIENDS OF BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK

Renovating two historic buildings at Big Bend National Park - the Alvino House and the Dorgan House. Both are popular with visitors and are examples of adobe work.
The Dorgan House—perhaps the park’s most iconic historic structure—in particular, is in critical need of intervention. All work will be done according to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Preservation, using experienced cultural resources professionals and historic preservationists recognized in their respective fields. Considered one of the most unique architectural features in Big Bend National Park, the Dorgan House is located on top of a pediment overlooking the Rio Grande floodplain near the mouth of Santa Elena Canyon. The structure also has a number of unique architectural features including arched wooden lintels, a great room, a double fireplace, the use of selected native petrified wood, and the use of the chimney as a structural support. These features, along with the construction style of vernacular adobe brick and native uncut stone, combine to make the structure one of the most unique in the park. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
The Alvino House at Castolon is believed to be the oldest standing adobe structure in the park and is one that the park service deemed significant enough to expend substantial time and resources over the years to protect. With its simple adobe and stone construction and rough-cut doors and windows, it is considered to be perhaps the finest example of historic vernacular adobe architecture in the park.