Digital Bob Archive

17 August 1979 issue

FEBRUARY 24, 1909-More than 100 boxes of iced halibut will be shipped south on the steamer Cottage City. The catch is from the boats Belle, Alecto, Caesar, Vesta and Wabash.

JUNE 23, 1913-The Thomas Building, opposite the Douglas Post Office, was partly destroyed by fire today. The blaze started at 11:30 a.m. from gasoline being used by Dr. Mathis, the dentist, who occupies offices on the second floor of the building. The gasoline ignited and resisted his efforts to smother it with a pillow. The ground floor of the building was occupied by the Rexall Drug Store, which lost heavily.

APRIL 20, 1915-A new Universal Multiple switchboard, arranged for 1200 lines, is the principal new item of new equipment on order from the Kellogg Supply Company for the Juneau and Douglas Telephone Company. Cost of the new equipment, to be installed in the new building at Second and Dixon Streets, is about $12,000 according to Edward Webster, owner of the company.

DECEMBER 18, 197-The high winds and icing conditions of the past two weeks have caused much trouble for the ferry boats of the Juneau Ferry & Navigation Company which run between Juneau, Douglas, Treadwell and Thane. Boats have been a half hour to an hour late, and ice on the ferry floats on both sides of the channel causes them to be hazardous to patrons. The boats themselves are often coated with from three inches to a foot of ice. The conditions are especially bad for Douglas residents who work at the Alaska-Juneau or Thane mines and who have to be on time in order to hold their jobs.

MAY 7, 1930-On her maiden voyage to Alaska, the steamship Aleutian, Captain Charles Glasscock, arrived in Juneau yesterday afternoon. She is the largest of the Alaska Steamship Company vessel and replaces an earlier Aleutian lost at Uyak Bay, Kodiak Island. The new Aleutian will carry 496 first class passengers out of a total of 600 passengers. Joe Large is her purser.

MAY 19, 1930-The seaplane Juneau of the Alaska Washington Airways, piloted by Ancel Eckmann, arrived yesterday on her first visit here this year. The plane came from Seattle under charter to Gilbert Skinner of the Alaska Pacific Salmon Corporation.

MAY 12, 1936-Two more residence lots owned by the City of Douglas have been disposed of in accordance with the city?s program of giving free lots to home builders. Mrs. Mamie Jensen received a corner lot at 5th and D Streets and Grant Logan received a lot on 4th Street between D and E.

MAY 14, 1936-Two famous Juneau landmarks are to disappear during the coming week. The former Governor?s House and Governor?s Office building, on Main Street below Sixth, are to be torn down. Both are on property owned by B. M. Behrends. The big house at the corner of Sixth and Main, known as the Channel Apartments was the residence of Governors Wilford B. Hoggatt and Walter E. Clark, 1906 to 1912. The governor?s office was in a smaller building just down the street. Both were built about 1900 for Henry Hile, superintendent of the Last Chance Mine on Gold Creek and served as residence and offices for the Last Chance Company.

MARCH 16, 1937-Installation of a new presser and a general plant enlargement was completed yesterday by Rod Darnell at his Triangle Cleaners. The large cleaning unit has been moved to the basement of the Triangle Building, giving more room on the street floor of the building for other operations.

MARCH 9, 1939-Located in the former offices of Dr. W. W. Council in the old Alaska Laundry Building on Front Street, the Juneau Medical and Surgical Clinic has reopened with complete new office and surgical equipment. The clinic was burned out in the Goldstein Building fire in February. Members of the clinic are Dr. Council, Dr. C. C. Carter, Dr. W. P. Blanton, Dr. W. M. Whitehead, and Dr. R. H. Williams, dentist.

MARCH 10, 1939-The Baranof Hotel will have its formal opening this evening. The hotel, which has 96 hotel rooms, 28 apartments on the fifth and sixth floor and three apartments in the penthouse, has many local stockholders and was also financed by a $200,000 loan from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. It features a coffee shop, banquet room, smaller meeting room and combined bar and dining room. Donald N. McDonald is the architect and arrived from Seattle to attend the opening. Total cost is placed at $550,000. A. W. Quist was the contractor for the construction. J. J. Meherin is president of the corporation, with James V. Davis, Dr. W. W. Council and Alfred Shyman as vice presidents and Wallis S. George as secretary-treasurer.

APRIL 21, 1939-Stanley Grummett has been issued a building permit for a five-room dwelling at 607 W. 10th Street. Plans for the house were drawn by the H. B. Foss Company and the Mendenhall Construction Co. is the contractor. Cost is placed at $7,000.

JUNE 10, 1939-John Hermle and Joe Thibodeau, owners of the Home Grocery, Home Liquor Store and American Meat Company, today announced that the American Meat Company is being moved. It has been located on Front Street for the past three years and is moving to the Home Grocery Building on Willoughby Avenue at E Street. A. T. Koski will manage the meat company which will open for business at the new location on the 12th.