23 Tin Pan Alley Road | North District Maintenance Building
[2019, Dunlap]
Updated on 4 June 2026 | “The North District Maintenance Building was buzzing with government functions when I arrived in the 1990s,” Mark Adams told me in June 2026. “The CCNS was divided into north and south districts with rangers, mechanics, road crews, etc., based here and in the south at Marconi. Everything got moved to one facility at Marconi at some point in the 2000s.” (From 1992 to 2022, Adams served as a National Park Service geologist and geographic information system cartographer. He is an artist/scientist-in-residence at the Center for Coastal Studies, and an artist represented by the Schoolhouse Gallery.)
“I enjoyed hanging out here with the auto mechanics,” Adams continued. “The rangers still have a gas pump and air station here and there was a sign shop. The lifeguard chairs and summer stuff were stored here. The National Park Service downsized all this and there have been no staff working here since the early 2000s. Rangers still use it for gas and air. And there is a fire cache of equipment for wildfires.”
“Tin Pan Alley was part of a network of horse trails/jeep roads. The path continues beyond the paved road to the east, looping back into town at Dunes’ Edge Campground and also near Atkins Mayo Road.”