Digital Bob Archive

Zina Reville Cheney, familiarly known as Zack, was a Juneau lawyer and political figure for more than 15 years, and was in on the ground floor of the building boom of 1913-14.

Cheney was born in Minnesota in 1870 and studied law at the state university where he graduated in 1893. He left his law practice to serve in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War and later in China during the Boxer rebellion.
His next move was to Alaska, to the Porcupine mining district near Haines. In 1902 he opened a law office in Douglas where he served a term on the school board. He moved to Juneau in 1907 and in 1909 at Seattle he married Miss Pearl Ziegler of Boise, Idaho.

Cheney became a law partner of Robert W. Jennings until the latter was appointed U.S. District Judge for the First Division in 1913. About that time a young man named Adolph Holton Ziegler arrived in Juneau and began reading law in Cheney's office. The two became partners after Ziegler's admission to the bar in 1915. Cheney was active in the Democratic Party and served on the Central Committee from 1908 until 1913 and as National Committeeman from 1913 until 1916.

In May, 1913, when it became apparent that Juneau was going to experience a boom, Cheney let a contract for the construction of a two-story business building on what is now South Franklin Street. It appears to have been the first new business building on that part of the street. Just south of it two of the oldest buildings in town, the Decker Brother store and the A. Goldstein store, were being torn down. Because of Cheney's early construction, his building, now owned by the Miner Publishing Co., may well be the oldest business building on the upland side of South Franklin Street south of Ferry Way.

One of the first tenants in the Cheney Building was Allen Shattuck who had just returned to Juneau after a lengthy absence. He had sold his insurance business to another local firm and gone to Medford, Oregon, to become a fruit rancher, but soon became disillusioned with that life. When he returned to Juneau he was able to re-purchase the insurance business and he was also Juneau agent for the Northland Steamship Company.

Another early tenant was W.A. Lemke who arrived from Bremerton, Washington, to establish a bakery and delicatessen, and W.H. Mendham, Jeweler, had his shop next door. The second floor of the building was divided into office space.

Cheney began to suffer poor health in 1917 - he died in Seattle in July, 1919, and was buried in the Masonic plot at Evergreen Cemetery in Juneau - and he sold the building to Michael George who opened the Leader Department Store there. In 1923 Dr. Robert Simpson bought it and moved his Nugget Shop there from the Seward Building. When the Nugget Shop moved to Second and Seward in 1947, the Loyal Order of Moose bought the Cheney Building for its club and lodge, and in 1967 it was purchased by the present owner, the Miner Publishing Company, which moved into it in April, 1968.