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Seward Historic Location Notes
(new notes are in red font color)
3rd Ave:
219; Ogle House built by Peter Ogle in 1915, who owned Ogle Garage (known at one time as
Buick Apartments) and a taxi service.
409; Stewart House built by F.H. Stewart, treasurer of the Alaska Central RR.
413; Winter House, also was a residence of a Alaska Central RR.
417; Holland House built by MB Holland, director of Alaska Central RR commissary.
423; Cameron House built by J. B. Cameron, Alaska Central RR construction engineer. Later it
was purchase by Dr. Joseph Romig and used as a hospital in 1910.
429; Hale House, owned by Eugene Hale, cashier for Bank of Seward (his brother, F.G. Hale was
founder and president of the bank). Later John Nelson, owner of the Water Works, bought the
house.
437; Ballaine House built in 1905 by Frank Ballaine who landed with his brother John in Seward
on August 28, 1903. (John was the founder of Seward (his choice of name received after a fight
with the federal government to commemorate the purchase of Alaska, arranged by President
Lincoln's Secretary of State, Wm. Seward), and owner of Alaska Central RR.
Rez Art; built by the Methodists in 1917 and sold to the Lutherans in 1949.
4th Ave.
4t" Ave Dock; held two large warehouses, offices, 10 switch tracks and off-loading equipment.
35' tidal waves destroyed it. The Tustemena used what remained of the dock after the'64
earthquake.
Note the SE corner of 4t" and Railway is a marker for Mile 0, Iditarod Trail.
4t" Ave between Adams and Washington originally had two hotels, a saloon, shoe repair,
barbershop, bowling alley, candy and cigar store, restaurant.
South of Brown and Hawkins was a grocery, built in 1907. South of that was a gambling hall built
in 1905, "Seward Club". All three establishments were built by Charles E. Brown and T.W.
Hawkins, who were in the original landing party. You can find history of them building in 1915, in
Anchorage out of salvaged wood from the SS Bertha, beached at Ship Creek, people referring to
it as "the Anchorage".
219; built by Harry Elsworth in 1916. Mrs. Elsworth sold women's and children's clothes as well
as dry goods. This became known as the Olander Building and was used as a jewelry store.
222; was built in 1929 by Paul McMullen, for a general merchandise shop, using cement blocks
manufactured in Seward by Gerhart Johnson (not regulation size). It was converted to a ladies'
dress shop in 1935.
223; constructed by "Long Shorty' Eidson and Mr. Dodson for Wagner's Place, a saloon. J.P.
Stotka took over in 1909. In in the 1920s it became Railway Express. The Painter family lived in
the apartment in the early 1930s and ran the office. Thor Osbo bought it in the 1930s, where he
located his plumbing and appliance shop until the 1970s
225; built by Bill Sayers (three stories) in 1908. One of the first settlers, he established the
Seward Commercial Company in 1904, then moved his business here.
Seward Drug; was rebuilt after the fire of1941, by Elwyn Swetman.
Urbachs; was also rebuilt (their original was built in 1915.
DLK; was built by John Mattich.
Alaska Shop; rebuilt by Lilly James.
SE corner; built by Charles Tucklenberg in 1922 as a grocery/mercantile/bakery.
Watsiold Building; was it on 41"? Built in 1907 and operated by Frye and Bruhn as a meat market,
selling quail, moose, ducks, sheep, goats. It was operated until at least 1924. Then it was
Waechters and Woljolds Grocery and Market.
Pocket Park at First National Bank; is the Iditarod Trail Plaque here as planned? It was at
museum for safekeeping once.
Alaska House; was this on 41"? Built in 1906 by John Debreuil and used as a rooming house until
the 1950s. Then Ralph Andrews used it for his junk collection.
Other Prominent Downtown Properties:
Old Sollys; built in 1910 by Cal Brosius and John Noon as apartments. It has been a furniture
store, bar and liquor store as well as a telegraph office. It is named for Sol Urie, who ran the bar
and liquor store.
Railroad Depot; was originally located at the foot of Adams street. It was built in 1920 and
Van Gilders Hotel; built by Mr. Van Gilder in 1916 as an office building, it has been a hotel since
1921, It was known as the Renwald Hotel during the 1950s and 1960s.
Theatre; built by Don Carlos Bownell's (the elder served as state senator) son, following the
1941 fire that burned the original (from Valdez?) theatre at 4t" and Washington (Elks Club?). It
became part of a theatre chain in 1952. Then was purchased by Fletcher and Sons who owned
theatres in Kenai, Kodiak and Palmer
Ray Building; built by Harriman Bank of New York in 1916, it was Seward High School from 1924-
1929, with 33 students. In 1933, L.V. Ray, attorney, bought it. He came to Seward in 1909 and
was president of the first territorial senate in 1913.
2nd Ave:
5t" Ave:
Odd Fellows Hall: was built in 1918. The Oddfellows disbanded in 1969.
Diversion Tunnel; finished by Corps of Engineers in 1940 is 2200' long.
Sexton House; (is this at foot of 2nd?) built before 1905, it was saved from demolition in 1978
and moved to the foot of 3rd Ave. temporarily. First Deputy, Marshall George Sexton used it and
then purchased it in 1909.
Hatch House; was first located on Lot 31 facing 2nd Ave. and was built by Peter Ogle in 1916. It
was moved in 1925 (to where?) and purchased by Sol Urie in 1930. It is presently (1978?) owned
by the Ralph Hatch family in the same block as Lot 31.
Episcopal Church; was built in 1906, the first wood church in Seward. (The others were in tents.)
The mural inside was painted in 1925 by Dutchman Jan VanEmple. (Does the Chamber of
Commerce still loan out the key for the church?)
Original Wesleyan Location; After several short term hospitals in Seward, the city council sought
bids to conserve the former school house south of the Episcopal church into a hospital. It
opened on June 20t" with 12 beds. (There is a picture of it in Family After All by Jaquelin Pels,
pg.195) Dr.A.D. Haverstock was hired from the railroad hospital in Anchorage as surgeon. He
contracted tuberculosis by the spring of 1937 and died in September. (See picture of him in
Family After All, pg. 192.North of the current hospital a Nurses' Residence was built in 1952. In
1958 it was converted to a long term care facility by the 1905 organized Women's Division of
the Methodist Church, who also built the first hospital in this location the same year, as well as
the T.B Sanitarium, earlier in 1941, across town on Diamond Blvd. Patients from the entire
peninsula were treated at Seward General Hospital. Many of the mothers of the Jesse Lee Home
children were kept here when they had tuberculosis.
Harborview Apartments; south of the old library, was built in 1904, as Jenny Paulson's Boarding
House. Then it was Seward Steam Laundry, owned by Harry Kawabe.
Swetman House; built in 1916 on the north side of First Lake and dropped on its side during
moving without a crack. Now located on 5t" Ave. Mr. Swetman was a druggist and banker.
The original Catholic church; was built at 322 5t" in 1910 and destroyed by fire. The present site
of the Catholic church was the site of a hospital when the RR was being built.
Other Historical Locations/Items:
Leier Retirement Home Farm House. east of the Lagoon, was at the corner of the location of
Seward Dairy, established in 1915, by F.S. Adelman and Mr. Quilty, on land where Metco has its
storage buildings now. In 1924, the dairy, with 12 cows, was sold to Henry Leier, an Austrian
immigrant who had a dairy herd in Enumclaw, Washington, arriving there from Autria in 1911,
with his wife, Anna. Henry and his son, Herman, ran the dairy for 16 years each. According to
Steve Leier (grandson of Henry), the cows walked three miles each day from the north to feed
upon the beach grass at the head of Resurrection Bay, south of the current runways. Herman
sold some of these lands after the earthquake so that the federal government could rebuild
dock facilities for the city and the state, according to an interview of long time Seward resident,
Margaret Anderson, recorded in the Phoenix Log, November 20,1997. The Leirer family donated
70 more of these acres to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to be managed by Ducks
Unlimited. I have seen a lot of swan families here!
As it flooded regularly, Adelman moved his buildings upon the hill where Henry built his
retirement home, to the cost of $14,000. This location actually bordered the beach, before the
lagoon (was built in the 1940s), 4t" Avenue and the current harbor were built. Henry lived here a
few years, before his death in 1956. Gerhard Johnson did the stucco finish. Herman had repairs
done, but could never duplicate Stucco Johnson's work. This property included fields where
Clearview Subdivision (built by Wally Hickle and his brother in 1954 before Wally was governor
of Alaska) is now and the military rec camp, all the way to the bay. See Family After All, pg. 337
and 360 for quotes, regarding the newly arrived soldiers in Seward being in the Jesse Lee
Home's "front yard".
Henry provided raincoats for his cows, increasing production by 20%, "because the cows could
feed in the rain," he said in a 1988 interview by the Kenai Peninsula Historical Society. They sold
butter, and cottage cheese also, delivering every day of the year by wagon or sled pulled by two
draft horses. In the 1920s, milk sold for 26 cents a quart, delivered with several inches of cream
on top, from the Jersey cows.
When Herman bought the dairy from his father, the year he married his wife Winnie Stevens,
there were 24 cows. Herman passed away a week after his 80t" birthday, in 1997, after closing
the dairy in 1956, with 45 cows. All dairy businesses in Alaska were going broke at that time due
to cheaper imported milk. It took Herman nine years to pay off the dairy's debt. Herman was
born in Enumclaw, arriving in Seward on the steamship, Alameda, March 24, 1924. Long time
Seward resident, Pat Williams, daughter of L.V Ray, attorney, was quoted as saying, "We've lost
some good people, but Herman was always there for anybody." Herman is known for pioneering
the road to Exit Glacier, from 1968 until the mid-1970s, using $410,000 state dollars for a cost of
3 cents per foot.
*Much of the above information is from the Nov. 20, 1997 Phoenix Log edition.
Jesse Lee Home Administrator's Home; on Swetman, the only part of the orphanage left
standing, was restored about 2013 as much as possible to it's original condition.
A hospital site; is located at a cement pad across from the current military rec camp, adjacent to
the tennis court. It has a large interpretive sign and a small plaque on the original cement pad.
Railroad Car; now out near Lowel Point, was named "Seward" and built by Pullman in 1916 as
the Dining car for the North Pacific Railroad. The Alaska RR bought it in 1935. It was given to
Seward in the 1960s and derailed in the'64 quake. Mac and Bob Eads moved it to Jefferson and
3rd, where it was Seward's Visitor Center at one time.
Slide show; on Walking Tour #2 (on the Museum's thumb drive) has great pictures; text by
Donna Kowalski, illustrations by Carol Griswold and Annie Martin, printed by the Chamber of
Commerce and Pioneers of Alaska Igloo and Auxilary #9.
Slide show; of early Seward is in the museum (another one?)
I hope the public will step in with more information and corrections. Please contact the
Historical Preservation Commission with those.
Ref: Old Walking Tour documents
SDF, Commissioner; 12/28/2020
Seward Historical Preservation Commission