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During the 1930s a series of trail "shelters" (now referred to as cabins) and "lean-tos" (now referred to as shelters or huts) were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in Shenandoah National Park along the route of the Appalachian Trail for the convenience of short and long distance hikers.

The outbreak of World War II brought the CCC to an end and so the work on these structures was completed by members of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club in conjunction with staff of the National Park Service in 1941.

One shelter/cabin (Rock Spring), pre-dated the work of the CCC, and since the 1940s, several huts have been added to the inventory of places for hikers to shelter from weather or to spend the night. One shelter/cabin (Meadow Spring) burned on Thanksgiving night, 1946, and one (Rip Rap) was removed by the Park Service due to overuse in a protected area of the Park.

A letter from Harvey Benson, the Park's Landscape Architect, to Myron Avery, President of the Appalachian Trail Conference, on November 28, 1941, provides an inventory of the completion date of the various structures.

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