A historic 1915 Swiss-style chalet on the shores of Swiftcurrent Lake.
Many Glacier Hotel stands as a monument to the ambitious "See America First" campaign of the early twentieth century, conceived by Great Northern Railway president Louis W. Hill to promote Glacier National Park as the "American Alps". Built between 1914 and 1915 on the eastern shore of Swiftcurrent Lake, the property was designed by architect Thomas D. McMahon to mimic a collection of Swiss chalets. The massive timber-frame structure relies on colossal Douglas fir pillars shipped by rail from the Pacific Northwest, paired with native stone foundations and dark brown wood siding. The exterior features decorative balconies with jigsaw-cut Swiss patterns, creating a striking, multi-tiered facade that scales up to five stories high.
The heart of the hotel is its towering, open-atrium lobby, where the aroma of burning lodgepole pine drifts from a massive three-sided stone fireplace. Suspended from the high ceiling are floating Japanese-style lanterns, a design choice by Hill that contrasts beautifully with the rustic Western timber. The lobby's crowning architectural feature is its historic double-helix spiral staircase. Originally removed in 1957 to make room for a gift shop, the iconic staircase was meticulously reconstructed and reinstalled during a massive, multi-phase forty-two million dollar rehabilitation project led by Anderson Hallas Architects, which concluded in 2017. This restoration also stabilized the hotel's foundation, corrected a historic tilt using hydraulic jacks, and uncovered the vaulted timber trusses of the adjacent Ptarmigan Dining Room, which had been hidden behind a drop ceiling since the 1930s.
The hotel features 211 guest rooms, ranging from small, historically rustic standard rooms to spacious suites with lakeside balconies. True to its historic character, the rooms lack televisions and air conditioning, encouraging guests to focus on the sensory details of the lake and the surrounding peaks. Dining is centered in the Ptarmigan Dining Room, where guests can eat beneath the restored cathedral-like timber trusses, and the Swiss Lounge, which serves local huckleberry cocktails like the Huckleberry Smash alongside draft beers. From the hotel's wooden boat dock, the wooden vessel Chief Two Guns departs daily, ferrying hikers across Swiftcurrent Lake toward Josephine Lake and the trailheads for Grinnell Glacier.
Reserve lakeside rooms exactly when bookings open (typically 13 months in advance) to secure private balconies facing Swiftcurrent Lake and Grinnell Point.
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