The log, trestle-roofed entranceway to The Ahwahnee hotel is called the "porte cochere." The hotel's architect had originally intended that automobiles enter a porte cochere from the meadow side of the hotel through the space where the Indian Room is now located.
Once through, the cars would be parked here, behind the hotel. In the final days before opening the hotel, officials realized that fumes and noise from cars passing beneath the hotel's second floor would disturb guests. Donald Tresidder, then president of Yosemite Park and Curry Co., ordered that a completely new entrance and 120-foot-long entrance walkway be constructed immediately. The porte cochere was hurriedly completed, just in time for the hotel's first guests on July 14, 1927.
The original porte cochere, made of ponderosa pine, lasted 61 years but eventually deteriorated. The structure was rebuilt in November 1988. It copies the original in exacting detail. However, it uses larger Douglas fir logs obtained outside the national park. The Douglas fir beams were needed to meet current building codes. The pillars and Vermont slated roof remain from the original construction.
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