Digital Bob Archive

The Malony Building fire of April 23, 1930, was one of five major fires that has occurred, over the years, at the intersection of Second and Seward Streets. Concrete buildings on two sides of the two-story Malony Building stopped the fire from becoming a real conflagration.

The Malony Building occupied the present site of the Simpson Building. In 1911 John F. Malony, a lawyer who was heavily into real estate and a number of business ventures, bought seven small buildings on that site. They were occupied, from the corner northward, by a newsstand, a cobbler, a fruit store, a furniture store, another cobbler, a tailor and an insurance office. Malony put up a one-story building divided into four store spaces. It was sometimes referred to in news stories as the Malony-Hill-Wilhelm Building, indicating that he may have had partners in the venture.

In 1913, when a real building boom began in Juneau, a second story was added, with 14 office rooms. This work was finished in September, before the Valentine Building was finished and before the Goldstein Building had been started. Office space was in great demand and the Malony Building was quickly filled. Leases included janitor service, which was said to have been an innovation in Juneau.

The 1930 fire was spotted about 7 o'clock in the morning by a member of the Juneau Volunteer Fire Department on his way to work. He gave the alarm and the engines quickly responded. By 1930 there was plenty of office space in Juneau and some of the upstairs rooms had been turned into apartments. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Jones were asleep in one and the building janitor, Ernest Brown, in another. They all escaped but saved nothing.

The fire developed so fast and was so intense at the south end of the building that firemen could not attach hoses to a hydrant across the street. Windows were broken in the Goldstein-Hellenthal Building on the opposite side of Seward Street and its outside was badly scorched. It had survived the Juneau Hotel fire in 1911 and stili stands today. Heat broke a window in the Goldstein Building.

The Malony Building was a total loss. A big loser was Gordon's, a ladies clothing store, and the Needlecraft Shop. Total losses included the offices of the Federal Bureau of Education, the offices of Lawyer Henry Roden and his law library, and the offices of Dr. H.C. DeVighne, including what was said to have been the finest medical library in Alaska and the photographs of hundreds of children he had delivered.

The concrete San Francisco Bakery building to the west, now the Silver Bow Inn, and the Alaska Meat Company building to the north, kept the fire from spreading. Garnick's Grocery in the latter building had some smoke and water damage, and Kann's Variety Store across Seward Street had scorched merchandise.

What was left after the fire was hauled away and the lot remained vacant until the Simpson Building was erected in 1947.