The Madison and Norris Museums are separated by a distance of 14 miles (23 km), while the Fishing Bridge Museum is more than 40 miles (64 km) away from the other two by road.

All three were designed by architect Herbert Maier in a style that has become known as National Park Service Rustic.

[4] The architecture of these buildings is characterized by rubble stone and shingle-clad walls, gabled roofs with clipped ends, flagstone floors some places, and peeled log posts as internal supports.

In addition to designing the Yosemite museums, he also designed buildings at the Grand Canyon, and the National Park Service Southwest Regional Office, also a National Historic Landmark.

Maier was influential, both personally and through these early works, in spreading this type of architecture throughout national and state parks and forests, particularly in works created by Depression-era jobs of the 1930s.