Klondike Gold Rush NHP: Skagway, District of Alaska

KLONDIKE GOLD RUSH

SKAGWAY, DISTRICT OF ALASKA — 1884-1912: Building the Gateway to the Klondike
Historical and Preservation Data

Part II
BUILDING THE DREAM

July 4 tug-of-war contest on Broadway Avenue about 1910.

Chapter 4
BROADWAY AVENUE, SKAGWAY

What was it like to walk along Broadway Avenue in gold rush Skagway at its peak? A sourdough standing at the corner of Fifth and Broadway would see a wall of false-fronted, wooden buildings with bright signs, awnings, boardwalks, crates and — most likely — mud. Two church steeples towered to the northwest with the beginnings of a residential district below them. To the southeast, down Fifth, squared-off lots jutted out from the corner of Ben Moore's hard-held homestead. A fence angled across Fifth Avenue marked the land claims boundary and the official start of Moore's abandoned White Pass Trail. The fence still stands.

The rest of town, however, appeared square and orderly with buildings evenly lined up with their frontages on the 50-by-100-foot lots. A continuous, solid face of false fronts, two and sometimes three stories high, lined Broadway from the depot to past Seventh.

Broadway Avenue between Second and Seventh is the core of Skagway's Historic District. The following streetscapes of this area, which are drawn from historic and modern photographs and from the structures still standing, show the early facades of the buildings lining Broadway — many of the buildings seen by our sourdough at the turn of the century. Contemporary visitors see Broadway as it appears in the accompanying photographic composites pieced together in 1977. (Note that the number beneath each building is keyed to the Historic District maps and building histories in the appendix.)

The architectural streetscapes represent the front of each building at its earliest known appearance, unless this early appearance does not include the major features known today. Rather than draw Broadway at a set time period, say 1898 or 1900, which would have omitted several key structures, each presently standing building was recreated to look as it did at the time it was constructed. However, since some of the early structures were mere shacks or very simple gable-roofed sheds — which only later received their distinctive false fronts and decorative trim, they are shown at their earliest "distinctive" appearance. Thus, the Pack Train complex is drawn with the ornate, towered facade added in 1908 and not as it appeared earlier as the army barracks with a simple gable roof.

Non-historic, recent buildings are drawn to represent their original 1960s or 1970s appearance; no attempt was made to add a "historic" facade over a non-historic building. Outlines or "ghosts" of structures which once stood on the now vacant lots on Broadway are included to help fill in the solid wall of shops and stores that once faced this street.

These two photos illustrate the facade changes along Broadway. Note the new face added to the Kelly & Co. Druggist's building in the spring of 1898; the construction debris in the foreground was used as fill in the street. (Photos courtesy of Alaska Historical Library, Juneau)