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By Kevin Allen
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
For several years, the Panorama building near U.S. 211 and Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park has sat empty and unused. But park officials have new plans for the deteriorating structure at Thornton Gap.
The former restaurant and gift shop will be razed and the site will be prepared for what park officials are calling a “long-term solution.”
“We intend to bring down the current building and prepare that site for a visitor center,” said park spokesperson Karen Beck-Herzog. “Well be building a new bathroom there, and expand that and make it something much more convenient for buses to stop there.”
Officials want a yearround visitor center, she said.
The Dickey Ridge Visitor Center at the northern end of the park and the Byrd Visitor Center at Big Meadows are closed during winter.
With its easy access from U.S. 211 between Sperxyville and Luray, a visitor center at Panorama could regularly host school groups. It may also be used as a museum for the Civilian Conservation Corps.
“The idea is there would be a learning center there for children or to bring park staff,” Beck-Herzog said. “During the winter and inclement weather, we don’t have a place we can bring children.”
Hie existing structure is more than 40 years old and is not historic or sustainable, she said. Park officials hope to replace Panorama with a more efficient, environmentally friendly building.
The Panorama project is Shenandoah’s top priority for the park system’s Centennial Fund coming up in 2016. The Centennial Fund was introduced by President Bush last winter and still has to get through Congress.
“It’s all really dependent on Congress and what happens with the funding there,” Beck-Herzog said.
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