Kimball's Store (Anchorage, AK)

I'm back from a brief hiatus due to slow internet and other non-internety things that had to be done this week. So today's post is on Kimball's Store.  It was constructed in 1915 and is the only structure from the original townsite to be in its original location.  That's mighty impressive for Anchorage.  It's pretty simple in its wood-frame construction and Hoagland even describes it as "plain to the point of homeliness", but it is one of the best examples of commerical storefronts from the "first generation" buildings and in the same spot to boot!  (The buildings constructed at the time of Anchorage's initial founding are considered first generation. The buildings constructed during the WWII boom are considered second generation.  I haven't heard of later buildings described as third or fourth generations, but it is a good way to pin point the series of economic and subsequent constructions booms in Anchorage over the years.)

Here is the "homely" building:

It's pretty amazing that it's still standing in its present location.  In fact, the National Register nomination was written in 1986 and you can see from the nomination photographs that a series of older (possibly 1950s) buildings were present along the street with similar scale and purpose. 

However, today it is the only building left on the square block.  It is surrounded by the Town Square Municipal Park, with the very large 80s-riffic Alaska Center for the Performing Arts right next to it.

Notice the "Vote for Tony" sign painted on the side of the building has been replaced by colorful moose.

This last remaining first generation building has got me thinking about a series that someone in New Orleans did called "dat ain't dere no more".  The series focused on old buildings and establishments that no longer existed, yet still held a special place in the heart of many New Orleanians.  And while I'm new to Alaska, there are some great buildings that I've come across through research that are no longer with us.  Perhaps a future post will be dedicated to those fine and forgotten buildings.

Hopefully the sun will be out so I can take some "happier" building shots this weekend.  As a great architectural historian once told me, "you can make anything eligible with the right weather and lighting. Lanscaping helps too."  More to come....