Rebuilding 105 Granite Fire Pits at Acadia’s Seawall Campground

A fire pit under rehabilitation at Seawall Campground (NPS photo).

Over two winters, the masons of Acadia National Park rehabilitated all 105 of the historic fire pits at Seawall Campground. They work in winter, when the campground is closed, even though the cold is far from ideal for outdoor masonry, and the campground’s historic status calls for special care.

A New Deal campground

Seawall is one of two historic campgrounds in Acadia, the other being Blackwoods. The Works Projects Administration (WPA) built it between 1936 and 1942 as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Its granite fire pits follow the rustic design style used across western national parks, which used natural topography and materials to preserve scenery in man-made spaces and, in many ways, defines what people think of as the national park experience. At Seawall the style also meant granite foundations, board-and-batten siding, hand-split shingles (since replaced with asphalt) and hipped and bellcast roofs.

Each fire pit has low, splayed stone arms attached to a stone backing and a higher back wall, which recalls a chimney but is purely decorative. The firebox is lined with beige firebrick, and the cooking grate is made of wide strips of cold-rolled steel, many fixed in place. Some units have a third splayed arm that carries a hinged grate and gives a small surface for preparing meals. The fire pits in the A, B and C loops are all original to the campground.

These fireplaces have long been known for needing a lot of maintenance. As early as 1938, Albert Good wrote that such facilities, despite every structural precaution, lasted scarcely one season under the heavy use of picnickers. Steel and concrete alternatives were soon developed, among them one designed by the Cook County Forest Preserve in Illinois, which became the prototype for the contemporary fireplaces widely used at Acadia.

What wears them out

The granite pits face extreme weather. Water, ice and extreme heat deteriorate the mortar and crack the granite, and the cracks widen over time. Water that gets into cracks freezes in cold months and expands, enlarging them. Heat from large fires can make loosened pieces of rock “pop” and can split whole blocks.

Some of the stones in the fireplaces have very serious cracks (NPS photo).

The repair

NPS masons fill the cracks with epoxy, then repair and re-mortar the joints, working under small heated mobile tents to restore each pit to the historic standard.

The cracks are filled with epoxy (NPS photo).

The joints are repaired and re-mortared (NPS photo).

A heated mobile tent for winter masonry (NPS photo).

How campers can help

Sitting around the campfire is a high point of a camping day for many. To keep the fire pits for future families, the park asks visitors to:

• avoid overly large fires that burn hot against the stone backing;
• not sit or lean on the backing or the stone arms, which are freestanding masonry and can topple;
• not try to lift or move the fire pits, since granite is heavy.

Sources

• National Park Service, Acadia National Park, “Rehabilitating Historic Fire Pits at Acadia’s Seawall Campground” (https://www.nps.gov/articles/seawall-fire-pits.htm); rewritten in hubnx's own words. A 1950s photograph of two people is left out.