Beginning in 1923, the cottage served as the main lodge for Camp Dunraven, the first permanent summer camp for girls in the Estes Park valley, and offered activities such as hiking, sports, horseback riding, handcrafts, and performing arts until 1965. The Dunraven Cottage is important for its association with the history of organized summer camps for youth in Colorado’s Estes Park valley and with the Camp Fire Girls of America, a progressive organization founded in 1912 to provide experiences for young girls on par with those offered by the Boy Scouts of America. The Dunraven Cottage is also a rare example of a Late Victorian cottage with Queen Anne characteristics constructed within the Estes Park valley during the mid-1870s.