Digital Bob Archive

4 January 1980 issue

JULY 28, 1915-Fires are threatening the home of Charles Rudy, a farmer living one mile north of Knudson?s ranch on the Mendenhall road. The flames this morning were within a mile of the Rudy home and a force of 10 men under Ranger Rabbitt of the U. S. Forest Service was fighting it.

JANUARY 20, 1927-Roller hockey, played at the skating rink in the Arctic Brotherhood Hall, is a popular game now and draws large crowds. Last week a team from the Coast Guard cutter Unalga defeated a team from the Juneau Rink by a score of 13-11. Last night the Unalga team overpowered a Juneau High School team by a score of 8-2. Playing for the high school were Peterson, Pigg, Brown, Conners and Livie. On the Unalga team were Rudolph, Holten, Herr, Cornell and Wheeler.

DECEMBER 9, 1929-The Rev. C. C. Saunders has been installed as the new pastor of the Northern Light Presbyterian Church. The Rev. David Waggoner gave the obligation. The Rev. Saunders succeeds the Rev. O. A. Stillman who recently resigned because of ill health.

MARCH 13, 1934-A Juneau landmark, the old brewery building behind the Zynda Hotel on Main Street, is being torn down. It was constructed in 1897 or 1898 and operated as a brewery until the advent of prohibition in Alaska in 1918. For many years the old Log Cabin Church, on the site of the present hotel, served as the office for the brewery company. It was razed in 1914.

APRIL 30, 1935-Jimmy Ramsay, Jr., today took over management of the Totem Grocery which Wilbur Irving has operated for the past 20 months. Irving says he has no present plans. During his 11 years in Alaska he worked for the Copper River & Northwestern Railway at Cordova and for a time was an airplane pilot. (Note: Totem Grocery occupied a portion of the present Sally?s Kitchen premises on Willoughby Avenue.)

JUNE 18, 1937-The partnership of R. R. Hermann and H. M. Hollmann, owners and operators of the Juneau Drug Company for the past eight years, has been dissolved and Mr. Hermann is now the sole owner. Mr. Hollmann plans to open a new drug store in the near future.

SEPTEMBER 12, 1937-The Southeast Alaska Fair closed last evening in the Fair Building on Glacier Avenue after a very successful three-day run during which between 1,800 and 2,000 people attended. The fair featured concerts, dances, floor show and many special exhibits, including floral exhibits, arts and crafts show and an extensive vegetable show. Nick Bavard of Juneau was the winner of most awards in the vegetable show.

DECEMBER 6, 1939-New officers for Igloo No. 6, Pioneers of Alaska, were elected last night as follows: William J. Markle, president; Jack Wilson, vice president; Al Lundstrom, second vice president; Alfred Zenger, secretary; John Langseth, historian; Dean C. E. Rice, chaplain; William T. Douglas, sergeant-at-arms; S. J. Paul and H. S. Graves, trustees.

Members of the Pioneer Auxiliary elected Dora Sweeney, president; Mrs. Charles Hooker, vice president; Mrs. Charles Fox, chaplain; Mrs. Joe Green, historian; Mrs. Kate Jarman, secretary; Mrs. John Satre, treasurer; and Mrs. Caroline Armstrong, sergeant-at-arms.

MAY 8, 1940-The Douglas baseball team won a hard fought game from the Elks last night at Firemen?s Ball Park. Final score was 7 to 6. Playing for Douglas were Odell, Manning, Erskine, Rustad, Stewart, Harrington, Jensen, Roller and Niemi. On the Elks squad were Taguchi, MacSpadden, Pasquan, Addleman, Waldron, Havlic, Ellenburg, Gaffert, Willey and Wilkins.

JUNE 20, 1940-Pan American Airway?s flying boat, Alaska Clipper, arrived here late today on the first official air mail flight between Seattle and Juneau. The big plane was bulging with sacks of mail and with 26 complimentary passengers. Flying time from Seattle was seven hours and there was a stop in Ketchikan. When the ship arrived near Juneau the channel was covered by fog and Captain A. S. Robbins set it down near Grand Island and taxied up the channel. It is reported that there are 22,000 ?first day? letters to go south on tomorrow?s flight.

AUGUST 8, 1940-The historic Occidental Hotel on Front Street will soon go under the wrecker?s crowbars and its furniture and fixtures are now being sold. Lumber from the old building will be used in construction of a new church for the Bethel Mission, Assembly of God, at Fourth and Franklin Streets. The lumber originally came from Rufus Sylvester?s sawmill in Wrangell. The Occidental stands on the site of Juneau?s first hotel, the Franklin, and was built in 1892 after the Franklin had been torn down. John Olds and Morris Orton, two Juneau pioneers, first built the Occidental with 25 rooms but it was added to several times afterward. In its early days board and lodging cost from $1 to $2 a day and it advertised electric lights, running hot and cold water in each room, a ladies? parlor and a reading room. The hotel also had a dining room and a bar. The dining room closed after Christmas dinner in 1912 and the last guest registered in 1931. Since then it has stood vacant. (Note: The Occidental stood on what is now a parking lot next to The Hamlet.)

OCTOBER 29, 1940-Radio Station KINY has moved to new quarters in the Decker Building on South Franklin Street. Practically all the broadcasting will be done from this location, with only one man stationed at the tower location on the rock dump. All broadcasting has been done from the rock dump location since the main studio in the Goldstein Building was destroyed by fire last year.