A landmark downtown Juneau building which hosted one of the inaugural Alaska Territorial Legislature is being removed.
David McCasland, owner of Deckhand Dave’s outdoor food stall on the property adjacent to it and an old Elks Hall building this summer. He stated on Friday that the building was a dream of his for better outcome.
Its style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”Just Let people know I did. This was the main goal I had,” McCasland said. “The building was destroyed, and it was not a possibility to save.”
McCasland has hired NorthWind Architects for the project. Shannon Crossley, an architect of the firm, also serves part of the town’s Historic Resources Advisory Committee. She says the building was in a state of disrepair over three decades.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”The conditions inside the building were getting ever worse” they said. “Eventually it changed into ‘How do we save the building?’ to “How do we keep the façade by some means? Then it became impossible any longer. It was really a sad tale .”
Crossley stated that at the when the building changed hands it was already too costly to save a single portion of it.
McCasland was a person with an intimate connection with the structure.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”I actually worked there about 10 years ago.” He said. “And I remember thinking”Man, it would be awesome to own this place. This building is absolutely gorgeous. .'”
McCasland was offering offers to buy the building for several years. Crossley stated that at the time, the condition deteriorated.
“Because they couldn’t come to an agreement on the price of that construction, it was left to languish,” she said.
Erik Emert and Deborah Percy were the former owners of the building, as per the Alaska Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing. The two were not available for comment on Friday.
The building was completed in 1908 and was the venue for its first Alaska Territorial Legislature in 1913.
“And that was the second thing they did vote on was giving ladies the ability to vote” Crossley said.
The first floor contained on the first floor was a Turkish bath as well as a bowling alley on the second floor, there was the ballroom. On the third level, on which the Legislature was first seated in the very first session was taken down in the 1940s. Then, the exterior was renovated to match the stucco appearance it was until the present week. It was also home to it’s Rockwell Restaurant and Bar down the hall.
Crossley said that Juneau’s historic buildings retain the authentic character of the town.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”And the moment you lose that historic fabric the fabric is gone for ever,” she said. “I would like to see more community-based investment in the historical structures from Juneau .”>
Crossley claims that public funding to support the preservation and utilizing historic buildings will assist in preventing this fate for other historical structures.
“There are a lot of old properties in the downtown of Juneau that could be repurposed as housing and can be utilized for a variety of things however the owners may not have the millions of dollars will be needed to get them back,” she said.
McCasland isn’t entirely sure about his future plans with the land. He has previously mentioned the possibility of building spaces for restaurants and housing. He’s attempting to determine what’s feasible financially.
Any project he designs would need be in line with the design requirements for the Downtown Historic District. It shouldn’t appear at all different from the street’s other buildings, Crossley said.
This means that it shouldn’t exceed 45 feet in height and must be similar to the design elements of the structures around it.
