Digital Bob Archive

Juneau's first City Hall was built in 1913 at Fourth and Main Streets on a piece of land that had originally been selected by the city, in 1900, for a dog pound. Fire trucks were housed on the first floor of the City Hall, with egress onto Fourth Street, which was narrower at that point than it is today. The trucks were barely able to make the turn when heading east, and when the call took them out Calhoun Avenue they had to stop and back up in order to swing around the corner.

In 1930 the City Council remedied that situation by buying a triangular piece of ground from Dr. and Mrs. A.J. Palmer. Mrs. Palmer was the former Mrs. John Olds and the property, where the Juneau Memorial Library now stands, had been in family hands since the 1880s. The strip purchased by the city was two feet wide at Main Street and 17 feet wide at Calhoun Avenue and Mayor Tom Judson, who also served as Street Commissioner, built a curved wall at Fourth and Calhoun.

Widening of Calhoun Avenue in the vicinity of Eighth Street was also carried on by the city street crew at that time, in response to a proposal by Russell Royden Hermann, pharmacist and owner of the Juneau Drug Company. The home owned by Hermann and his wife, Mildred, stood high above Calhoun Avenue at Eighth. The property protruded far enough into the street to create a very sharp corner and Hemann proposed to donate six feet of the property to the city if it would build a retaining wall. Further, he offered to contribute $400 to the construction of that wall.

The retaining wall was built during the summer of 1930 and remained in place until this year, 1988, when the street at that point was widened further and the wall was replaced. Whether the rock wall across Calhoun from the Governor's House was also built that year has not been determined.

A Calhoun Avenue improvement that gladdened many mothers of children attending the Juneau Public Schools on Fifth Street was first constructed in 1932. It was a pedestrian overpass at Fifth Street, planned and constructed by Mayor Tom Judson. It was completed and opened for traffic on December 13, 1932. The original structure has been rebuilt several times and is still much used even though the schools have moved.

A major rebuilding of a portion of Calhoun Avenue came in 1935. The federal government, as a part of the various New Deal programs, was providing funds for a variety of public works, including street improvement. Juneau took advantage of the opportunity to pave several of its streets, including Calhoun Avenue, and to widen and rebuild a troublesome part of that street between Fourth and Seventh Streets.

The old plank street on posts was replaced by a heavy duty concrete trestle and strips of property were acquired from owners on both sides of the street so it could be widened and the curves made less sharp. Paving with concrete was begun on July 15 and the street, after being closed most of the summer, was reopened on August 8, 1935.