Glacier Park Lodge is located just outside the boundaries of Glacier National Park in the village of East Glacier Park, Montana, United States. The lodge was built in 1913 by the Glacier Park Company, a subsidiary of the Great Northern Railway. Glacier Park Lodge has 60 Douglas Fir columns 40 feet (12 m) tall and between 36 and 42 inches (91 to 106 cm) in diameter, many of which frame the central atrium. Each column was brought in by rail from the Pacific Northwest because trees in Montana rarely grow as big as this. The lodge was styled as a Swiss chalet akin to other lodges built by the Great Northern between 1913 and 1917. A nine hole golf course is a part of the lodge complex and was added in 1927, becoming the first golf course in the state of Montana. The lodge is only open during the summer months between late May and the latter half of September.
Louis Hill, President of the Great Northern Railway and son of James J. Hill developed the Glacier Park lodges as part of his plan to upgrade Great Northern passenger services and compete more effectively with the rival Northern Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads, whose proximity to Yellowstone National Park provided a major attraction for tourists along those routes.
Hill lobbied Congress for the designation of national park status for Glacier Park, and got it in 1910. The Railroad then began building Glacier Park Lodge, the first of several Great Northern lodges in the Park. Hill marketed the Park as an "American Alps," and many of the facilities were developed like Swiss alpine hotels.
The Great Northern commissioned Samuel L. Bartlett of St. Paul, Minnesota as the architect for the Glacier Park Lodge, but Hill controlled every major aspect of the design.
The Lodge was based on the Forestry Building at the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon. The floor plan is patterned after early Christian basilicas. As a result, the lobby provides a mood of calm sanctuary. The spiritual tone is reinforced by St. Andrew crosses in the balcony railings. Originally opened with only 61 guest rooms and was soon expanded with the 111 room annex.
Amtrak still markets the park as a tourist destination for its Empire Builder passenger train, and many of Glacier National Park visitors still arrive by train. Once common among many National Park railroad tour destinations, the Glacier Park lodges are among the last with a real railroad tie.