Palmer is a city in and the borough seat of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States, located 42 miles (68 km) northeast of Anchorage on the Glenn Highway in the Matanuska Valley. It is the ninth-largest city in Alaska, and forms part of the Anchorage Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city is 5,888, down from 5,937 in 2010.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska.
The Berry House is a historic house at 5805 North Farm Loop Road, near Palmer, Alaska. It is a simple 1+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure with a gable roof. It was designed by architect and community planner David Williams, and built in 1935 as part of the Matanuska Valley Colony project. Despite a rearward extension in 1971, the building is a well-preserved example of the type of housing built as part of this New Deal project. The house is named for James Berry, one of the project participants who was the house's third occupant.
The United Protestant Church, also known as The Church of a Thousand Trees, is a historic church located at the corner of South Denali Street and East Elmwood Avenue in Palmer, Alaska. It is a rustic log two-story structure, in the shape of a cross. A small bell tower with a dormer roof rises just above the main entrance. The interior is shaped from rustic log elements, with carved pews. The church property includes a manse and garage, built from similar materials.
David Williams was an architect and community planner. He worked in the Washington, D.C. office of Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA).
The Bailey Colony Farm, also known as the Estelle Farm, is a historic Matanuska Colony farmstead that dates from 1935. It is located along the Glenn Highway near Palmer, Alaska in Matanuska-Susitna Borough. It was part of a New Deal program opening farms in Alaska as part of assisting overpopulated rural areas of the lower 48 states of the US, in a program conceived of by FERA architect David Williams.
The Campbell House, also known as Colony House #54 and Campbell-Bouwens-Hamming House, is a historic house at 1540 Inner Springer Loop Road, near Palmer, Alaska. It is a simple 1+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure with a side gable roof. It was designed by architect and community planner David Williams, and built in 1935 as part of the Matanuska Valley Colony project. Of the 75 frame houses built as part of the colony, the Campbell House is one of the few that has survived, and is among the best-preserved. The Campbell House property also retains the original, now restored outhouse, and the chicken coop. At present time the Campbell House is the only colony home available to the public as a vacation rental.
The Wasilla Community Hall, also known as the Wasilla Museum, now hosting the Dorothy G. Page Museum, is located at 323 Main Street in Wasilla, Alaska. The museum is located in a log building constructed in 1931 to serve as a community center. The exterior of the building was left largely as-is when it was converted to a museum in 1967. The interior houses displays about the history of the city of Wasilla.
The Hyland Hotel, also briefly known as the Everglenn Hotel, is a historic hotel building located at 333 W Evergreen Avenue in the heart of Palmer, Alaska. The Hyland Hotel is recognized as a building of historical significance by the city of Palmer and was officially listed by the United States Department of the Interior on the National Register of Historic Places on June 21, 1991. This property was built as a direct result of The New Deal Colony Settlement of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley in Alaska, where settlers were brought to the Matanuska-Susitna valley to colonize Alaska from 1935 - 1940. It is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure with a front-gable roof and a glass-enclosed porch that has been converted to hotel rooms which extend across the front of the building. The original building was constructed in 1935 and measures 30 x 30 feet. A 10 x 14 foot addition was built on the rear of the building in 1953 to add additional living and storage space.
The Independence Mines, now Independence Mine State Historic Park, is the site of a former gold mining operation in the Talkeetna Mountains, across Hatcher Pass from Palmer, Alaska. The area's mining history dates to at least 1897, when active claims were reported in the vicinity of Fishook Creek. These early mining efforts were eventually joined to form the Wasilla Mining Company, which worked the mines from 1934 to 1943, and again from 1948 to 1950. The mining operation at Independence was the second-largest hard-rock gold mining operation in the state, after a larger site near Juneau. The company and the miners that preceded it built a substantial mining camp, with as many as sixteen wood-frame buildings, which were originally connected to each other by sheltered wooden "tunnels". When the company ended operations in 1950, it had expected to eventually resume operations, but never did; this resulted in a particularly well-preserved collection of mining equipment and buildings, although the weather has since taken a significant toll on the latter.
Kirsch's Place, also known as the Fireweed Station Lodge, and now the Fireweed Station Inn, is a historic traveler accommodation near Talkeetna, Alaska. It is located about 10.5 miles (16.9 km) south of Talkeetna, roughly 200 feet (61 m) east of mile 215.3 of the Alaska Railroad, a place known as Sunshine Siding. It is a 1+1⁄2-story log structure, built in 1946 by John Kirsch as a residence and guest lodge. Kirsch operated the lodge until his death in 1959. The lodge is a rare survivor of a post-World War II rural building boom, which was later eclipsed as roads and settlement in the area became more prevalent.
The Knik Site, also known as the Old Knik Townsite, is the location in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska that was once home to the largest settlement on Cook Inlet. The only surviving remnants of the community are a former log roadhouse, now a museum operated by the Wasilla-Knik Historical Society, and a log cabin. The Knik area had long been a meeting point of Native Alaskans, and in 1898 it became the principal community on Cook Inlet from which goods were shipped into the interior. In 1916 the Alaska Railroad reached the site of present-day Anchorage, bypassing Knik and leading to Anchorage's growth. When the railroad reached Wasilla, Knik lost all importance as a transshipment point, and its buildings were either abandoned or moved to one of the other communities. Knik is located about 13 miles (21 km) southwest of Wasilla.
Teeland's Country Store, also known as Herning's Place and Knik Trading Company, is a historic retail establishment located at the corner of East Herning Avenue and North Boundary Street in Wasilla, Alaska. The oldest portion of this wood-frame building is a log structure at the back whose construction dates to 1905. Originally located at Knik, this log structure, then also used as a store, was moved to the newly established town of Wasilla in 1917 by its builder, O. G. Herning. Herning also built the present utilitarian wood-frame structure, which still operates today. The business was purchased by Walter Teeland in 1947, giving it its present name. In 1972 the store was purchased by Jules and Leslie Mead and Neil Gail Bridgewater.
The Talkeetna Historic District encompasses several blocks of the historic village center of Talkeetna, Alaska. It includes buildings on Main Street, roughly between C and D Streets, along with a few buildings on C and D Streets between Front and East First Streets. The village was established in 1916 as a regional construction headquarters of the Alaska Railroad, and became a home to area miners after the railroad's completion. The district includes three buildings that date to the time of the railroad construction, and another ten that were built before 1940. Most of the buildings in the district are one or two stories in height, and are either of wood frame or log construction. Notable among them are the Fairview Inn, the town's first schoolhouse, now the Talkeetna Museum, and the Talkeetna Roadhouse, which was built as a residential log house in 1917 and expanded in the 1940s to serve as a roadhouse.
The Matanuska Colony Community Center, also Palmer Historic District, is a cluster of buildings near the center of Palmer, Alaska that were the centerpiece of the Depression-era Matanuska Valley Colony. This federal rural resettlement program was intended to give needy families resources and land to improve their condition. The colony's buildings were erected beginning in 1935, and those that survive represent a well-preserved example of government community planning. It is centered on a city block bounded by East Dahlia Avenue, South Valley Way, South Denali Street, and East Elmwood Avenue, and extends to the north and south. The buildings on this block are organized around a grassy quadrangle, laid out in 1935. Prominent buildings include the Palmer Depot and three churches, located in the block just southeast of the quadrangle, one of which, the United Protestant Church, is a distinctive log structure. The colony's Central School, now added to several times, houses the offices of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
The Palmer Depot is a historic train station at South Valley Way and Evergreen Avenue in Palmer, Alaska. It is a large three-section single story frame structure, built in 1935 to provide transportation services to the newly established Matanuska Valley Colony. The main section is the former warehouse, which is 94 feet (29 m) long. The next section, with a lower profile than the warehouse, housed baggage facilities, a passenger waiting area, and living quarters for the station agent. The third section, the smallest of the three, houses the former ticketing office. The building now houses a community center.
The Patten Colony Farm is a historic farm property in Palmer, Alaska. It is located near milepost 39.9 on the Glenn Highway, and is a relatively complete instance of a farmstead established in the 1930s as part of the Matanuska Valley Colony initiative. The complex consists of eight buildings, six of which were built in the 1930s. The main house is an L-shaped log structure with a concrete foundation, a rarity in the colony. Smaller outbuildings include a log outhouse, a chicken house, and two barns, one of which is the only surviving horse barn of the colony.
The Raymond Rebarchek Colony Farm is a historic farm property on Rebarchek Avenue in Palmer, Alaska. It consists of a 40-acre (16 ha) tract of land granted to Raymond Rebarchek in a 1935 land lottery organized by the Matanuska Valley Colony, a Depression-era agricultural colony project. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. At that time, the farm complex included ten buildings, including Rebarcheck's original log house, a dairy barn, a well house, a greenhouse, and a chicken house. Only the original farmhouse, silo, and milking parlor are still standing today. The Alaska State Fair purchased the property in 2002 and is contemplating the establishment of a demonstration farm there.
The Puhl House, also known as the Bacon House, is a historic house at the corner of Scott Road and Glenn Highway in Palmer, Alaska. It is a rectangular single-story log structure measuring 35 by 25 feet, built out of round logs joined by saddle notches at the corners. The diameter and length of the logs reduces as they rise to the eaves; oakum chinking is used to close the gaps. The house was built in 1935 by Joe and Blanche Puhl, settlers who were part of the Matanuska Valley Colony settlement project. This building is distinctive as a colony house because it was not built by the crews of the Works Progress Administration that built most of the colony's housing; the Puhls organized their own construction team and acquired materials for its construction on their own.
Cunningham-Hall PT-6 NC692W is one of two surviving aircraft of its type from the early days of aviation in the history of Alaska. The Cunningham-Hall PT-6 is a single-engine six-seat cabin biplane built by the Cunningham-Hall Aircraft Corporation, which was designed mainly as a personal transport. The aircraft, registered as NC692W, with c/n. 2962, was built in 1930 and is the second of its kind constructed. It was entirely rebuilt as a static display using non-airworthy materials in the 1970s.
