Valentine Building
The Valentine Building, built in two phases in 1904 and completed in 1913, is significant for its Frontier Alaskan architectural character, its recognized importance as Juneau's most prestigious office building
during the first half of this century, its association with Emery Valentine and other prominent pioneer Alaskans and significant historic events.
Emery Valentine arrived in Alaska in 1886, possessed of a strong degree of entrepreneurial ambition. At the age of 10, he had already crossed the midwest plains with his pioneering parents.
He followed the Rocky Mountain gold fields as prospector and miner, and lost a leg lost in an early Colorado Territory mining accident.
Still following the gold trails, Valentine arrived in the raw gold camp of Juneau only six years after that significant 1880 Gold Creek discovery by Joe Juneau and Richard T. Harris. He learned goldsmithing—which led him into the gold jewelry trade.
John Olds, one of the first sourdough prospectors following Juneau and Harris, recalled that,"We landed our canoe on November, 1880, at the foot of where Seward Street new is. . ." This site, just at the-tide mark, was registered, in 1881 as a mining claim, the Boston Lode.
In 1896, yhe year after Valentine's Alaskan arrival, Ernest Ingersoll's best-selling book, Gold Fields of the Klondyke, proclaimed "Juneau, a town of 3,000 is rightly called the metropolis of Alaska Territory. Whether she will retain this prestige remains to be seen. If so, one of two things must occur. She must plane down
the side of her mountains or erect skyscraping buildings with elevators to accommodate her populace, for nearly every foot of available ground is already occupied. . ."
Emery Valentine was foremost among the developers who found a better way.
When he arrived in Juneau, Front Street was the high tide beach of Gastineau Channel. Emery Valentine, accordingly, was among those who set progress by filling in ground along this derelict beachline. This enabled Valentine to build the first segment of his first building.
"Walking up the stairs to the second floor of the Valentine Building . . . is a trip back into what was the most prestigious business building of Juneau in the early 1900's, built by one of Juneau's colorful pioneer characters ..." according to Toni Croft & Phyllis Bradner's Touring Juneau; Back Streets, Bawdy-houses, Bars & Bodacious Biographies.
In 1913, the Valentine Building block was advantageously enlarged to include the prime corner lot at Seward and Front Streets. The 1904 structure not only doubled in size, but its impact was vastly enhanced by the most prominent corner location of two streets—rather than only one.
Emery Valentine had come to Alaska in 1886 to satisfy a lifelong desire to develop North America's "Last Frontier." Valentine founded Juneau's finest jewelry store which occupied the city's test retail site at the corner of Seward and Front with exposure on both streets.
Valentine became highly active in Alaskan politics and civic activities. He was Chairman of a city council-type organization called the Juneau Board of Safety, and underwriter and private financier for the first Juneau Fire Department. Valentine served six successful terms as Mayor after Juneau was incorporated in 1900.
Emery Valentine proved his deep commitment to development of Southeastern Alaska. As one of the largest property owners in southeastern Alaska, he helped found the Alaska Steamship Line, the foremost freight and passenger ocean line with service to Seattle. He founded the Peoples Wharf Company Docks at Skagway and Juneau, which so affected shipping charges in these ports, that coal and lumber prices dropped to almost half of the exorbitant rates paid before 1900.
Valentine wanted to erect "a quality structure that would give Juneau a truer air of urbanity."
The Valentine Building was the first in Alaska where office space was intentionally separated from retail space. The building's reputation for quality offices, gained over the years, and its ideal central downtown location, as well as architectural quality, provided elite tenancy for the first half of the century.
Architecturally, the Valentine building is an outstanding example of frontier Commercial architecture that recalls a pioneer Alaskan tradition of quality craftswork; the design responding and interpreting the contemporary architectural developments of the late 19th century West Coast.
Despite intentions to the contrary, the building is a vernacular one; yet impressive in its execution of style. The isolation of Juneau at that time, plus the popularity of pattern books as architectural design aids, provided the fine ornamentation of the building which was available from Seattle millworks).
Stylistically, Valentine Building provides documentation of an historic design evolution.
It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
Bishop, Harry A.
Primary Name: Bishop, Harry
Filed as: bishop_harry
Also known as:
Occupation / Association: Miner; Manager, Juneau Water Company; Mayor of Juneau; U.S. Marshal, First Judicial District of Alaska; Charter Member, Juneau Men’s Igloo
Born: 1869, Iowa
Died: May 12, 1920, near Des Moines, Washington
Parents:
Spouse:
Children:
Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Sheep Creek, Alaska; Des Moines, Washington
Property / Address:
Keywords: Harry Bishop, Bishop Harry, Mayor of Juneau, Juneau Water Company, U.S. Marshal First Judicial District Alaska, Democratic Territorial Central Committee, Sheep Creek miner, Juneau Men’s Igloo charter member
Biography
Harry Bishop was a charter member of the Juneau Men’s Igloo of the Pioneers of Alaska. Bishop was born in Iowa in 1869.
He came to Alaska in 1896 during the early years of the region’s mining development and worked as a miner at Sheep Creek near Juneau.
Bishop later became associated with the Juneau Water Company and served as its manager from 1910 to 1914.
Active in territorial politics, he served as Secretary of the Democratic Territorial Central Committee from 1910 to 1912. Bishop was elected Mayor of Juneau and served from 1912 to 1913.
He later became the United States Marshal for the First Judicial District of Alaska and held that position from 1914 until 1917. He resigned from the office because of declining health and moved to a farm near Des Moines, Washington.
Bishop died there on May 12, 1920.
Sources
Evangeline Atwood and Robert N. DeArmond, Who’s Who in Alaskan Politics: Biographical Dictionary of Alaskan Political Personalities, 1884–1974, p. 7.
Tags: Harry Bishop, Bishop Harry, Juneau mayor, U.S. Marshal Alaska, Juneau Water Company, Democratic Territorial Central Committee, Sheep Creek miner, Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men’s Igloo charter member, Juneau Alaska
Chase, William H.
Primary Name: Chase, William H.
Filed as: chase_william_h
Also known as: William H. Chase
Occupation / Association: Charter Member, Juneau Men’s Igloo; Grand President, Pioneers of Alaska (1938); Mayor of Cordova, Alaska; author
Born: January 19, 1874, Warsaw, New York
Died: October 1, 1965, Seattle, Washington
Parents:
Spouse:
Children:
Associated places: Warsaw, New York; Skagway, Alaska; Dyea, Alaska; Dawson, Yukon Territory; Fairbanks, Alaska; Valdez, Alaska; Katalla, Alaska; Cordova, Alaska; Seattle, Washington
Keywords: William H Chase, Chase William H, Pioneers of Alaska Grand President 1938, Cordova mayor William Chase
Biography
William H. Chase was a charter member of the Juneau Men’s Igloo and served as Grand President of the Pioneers of Alaska in 1938.
Chase was born in Warsaw, New York, on January 19, 1874, and completed high school there. He later attended Bellevue Hospital in New York City as a medical student with an emphasis on natural history.
He came north during the gold rush years and lived in Skagway, Dyea, and Dawson between 1897 and 1903. He later resided in Fairbanks from 1903 to 1904 and in Valdez from 1905 to 1906.
Chase moved to Katalla in 1907 and eventually settled in Cordova, Alaska, where he became a prominent civic leader and served twenty-four terms as Mayor.
He was also an author. His works include The Sourdough Pot (1943) and Capt. Billie Moore and Pioneers of Alaska (1951).
William H. Chase died in Seattle, Washington, on October 1, 1965.
Sources
Who's Who in Alaskan Politics: Biographical Dictionary of Alaskan Political Personalities, 1884–1974, Evangeline Atwood and Robert N. DeArmond, p. 16.
Tags: William H Chase, Chase William H, Pioneers of Alaska Grand Presidents, Cordova mayors, Alaska pioneers
Malony, John F.
Primary Name: Malony, John F., Jr.
Filed as: Malony, John F., Jr.
Also known as: John F. Malony; John Mahony
Occupation / Association: Lawyer; businessman; mining investor; mayor of Juneau; charter member, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men's Igloo; President, Alaska Electric Light and Power Company
Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Shieldsville Township, Rice County, Minnesota; Glendive, Montana; Dawson County, Montana; Porcupine District, Alaska; Windham Bay, Alaska; Rainy Hollow, British Columbia; Palo Alto, California
Keywords: John F Malony Juneau Alaska, Juneau mayor early Alaska, Dalton Trail Company partners, Jack Dalton Alaska Pathfinder associate, Porcupine Mining District Alaska, Alaska Electric Light and Power Company history, Chicken Ridge Juneau development, Alaska pioneers business leaders
Biography
John F. Malony, Jr. was a charter member of the Pioneers of Alaska, Juneau Men's Igloo, and one of the most influential early civic and business leaders in Juneau. Pioneer banker and businessman B. M. Behrends once remarked that Malony had “probably done more for Juneau than any other man.”
Malony was born in 1857 in Shieldsville Township, Rice County, Minnesota, to Francis and Mary Donahue Malony, Irish immigrants who had earlier settled in New Brunswick, Canada. He was educated at Shattuck School in Faribault and at St. John’s College in St. Cloud, Minnesota. After reading law under Minnesota Attorney General Gordon E. Coles, he passed the bar and practiced law for nearly twenty years.
In 1881, he moved to Glendive, Montana, during the rapid development of the mining frontier. His career advanced quickly: he was appointed Probate Judge in 1882, elected to the Montana legislature later that year, and served as a delegate to the Montana Constitutional Convention in 1884.
Following an assassination attempt during a speech in Montana, Malony eventually left the territory and moved north to Alaska in the mid-1890s, bringing with him his son Joseph Mahony.
In Juneau, he met Cora Cleveland, a milliner who had established a hat shop in the city in 1895. They married in Juneau, and on December 29, 1899, their son John F. Malony III was born.
Malony worked closely with Alaska Pathfinder Jack Dalton. In 1893, he successfully defended Dalton in the controversial trial involving the death of Don (or Dennis) McGinnis. Malony and Dalton later partnered in several ventures, including the Dalton Trail Company and the Dalton Pony Express Company, which served miners traveling to the Yukon prior to the construction of the White Pass and Yukon Railway.
Malony also participated in early mining investments throughout Southeast Alaska. He was involved in placer claims on Chicken Ridge in 1890 and later in mining ventures in the Porcupine district near Haines with partners including E. B. Hanley. The group also operated the Porcupine Trading Company.
Beyond mining, Malony invested in fisheries and canneries near Wrangell and Petersburg and became a principal stockholder in the Juneau Ferry & Navigation Company.
Malony was deeply involved in civic affairs. He served on Juneau’s first city council around 1900 and was elected mayor in 1907. He also helped lead the Alaska Electric Light and Power Company, serving as its president while J. P. Corbus served as treasurer. Their leadership expanded electrical power generation in Juneau during the early twentieth century.
Among Malony’s real estate projects were the Gold Belt residential development and the Malony Block commercial buildings in downtown Juneau. One house constructed in association with mining entrepreneur Bart Thane later became the well-known Wickersham House.
Malony’s health declined around 1915, and he moved to California while continuing to manage his Alaska investments. He died in Palo Alto, California in early June 1919. He was survived by his wife, Cora Cleveland Malony, and three children.
Sources
Alaska Mining Hall of Fame.
Gastineau Channel Historical Society, Winter 1986.
Malony Collection, Alaska State Library, MS 40.
Alaska Daily Empire, June 2, 1919.
Reck, John
Primary Name: Reck, John
Filed as: Reck, John
Also known as: John Reck
Occupation / Association: Charter member, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men's Igloo; butcher; businessman; mayor of Juneau; president, First National Bank of Juneau
Associated places: Elkador, Clayton County, Iowa; Tacoma, Washington; Juneau, Alaska; Strawberry Point, Iowa
Keywords: John Reck, Reck family Juneau Alaska, Alaska Meat Company Juneau, mayor of Juneau 1914 1915, Juneau Chamber of Commerce president, First National Bank of Juneau president, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men's Igloo charter member
Biography
John Reck was a charter member of the Pioneers of Alaska, the Juneau Men's Igloo, and a prominent businessman and civic leader in early Juneau.
He was born April 12, 1865, in Elkador, Clayton County, Iowa. At the age of thirteen, he left home to support himself. By the age of eighteen, he had learned the meat business and, in 1886, moved west to Tacoma, Washington, where he lived until 1897.
In 1897, the firm he worked for sent him to Juneau to take charge of a meat market owned by the company after the butcher had left for the Klondike gold rush. Reck expected to remain only a few months, but the company never sent a replacement. As he later remarked during a newspaper interview on his seventy-fifth birthday in 1940, “And I have been here ever since.”
On October 3, 1888, he married Marie Ann Rieck in Strawberry Point, Iowa. She had been born June 20, 1867, in Kitchener, Ontario. The couple had four children. Marie Ann Rieck Reck died in Juneau on December 5, 1940.
Reck became deeply involved in the civic and commercial life of Juneau. He served four terms on the Juneau Municipal Council and served as the city's mayor from 1914 to 1915. He also served as president of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce.
For many years, he operated the Alaska Meat Company in Juneau. In 1912, he became involved with the First National Bank of Juneau, serving as a director until 1915, when he was elected president.
Through his business enterprises and public service, John Reck played a significant role in the economic and civic development of Juneau during Alaska’s territorial period.
Daily Alaska Empire, April 12 and December 6, 1940; Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850–1950, Volume 2, pages 268–269, by Ed Ferrell.
Tanner, Josias Martin
Primary Name: Tanner, Josias Martin
Filed as: Tanner, Josias Martin
Also known as: Josias Tanner; “Senator Si” Tanner
Occupation / Association: Charter Member, Juneau Men's Igloo; Alaska Territorial Senator; Mayor of Skagway; Deputy United States Marshal; merchant; miner
Associated places: Oakland County, Michigan; Central City, Colorado; Juneau, Alaska; Skagway, Alaska; Tacoma, Washington
Keywords: Josias Martin Tanner, Senator Si Tanner, Juneau Men's Igloo charter members, Skagway Alaska mayor, Soapy Smith era Skagway, Alaska Territorial Legislature, Skagway Vigilantes, Arctic Brotherhood members, Alaska-Yukon pioneers
Biography
Josias Martin Tanner was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo of the Pioneers of Alaska and one of the prominent early civic leaders of Skagway during Alaska’s gold rush era.
Tanner was born in Oakland County, Michigan, on February 22, 1850. His grandfather served in the Revolutionary War, having enlisted at the age of fifteen. A brother of Tanner’s grandfather, William Tanner, was reportedly a member of President George Washington's bodyguard when the British and Loyalists attempted to capture the first President.
Known throughout Alaska as “Senator Si,” Tanner served two terms in Alaska’s territorial lawmaking assembly.
As a young man, Tanner began his career in mining. At the age of twenty, he left Michigan and went to Central City, Colorado, one of the famous mining camps of Gilpin County. There he worked in the gold mines and mills of Colorado for four years.
In 1871, he married Juliette Valentine, the sister of Emery Valentine, who later served as mayor of Juneau. Three children were born to the couple: two daughters, who later lived in Tacoma, Washington, and a son, Fred Tanner, who eventually joined his father in business in Skagway.
The family later moved to Tacoma, where Tanner worked in the contracting business. In 1896, he accepted a position in Emery Valentine’s general store in Juneau.
During the Klondike Gold Rush, he moved to Skagway in July 1897 during the Dawson stampede and remained there for the rest of his life. In Skagway, he played an important role in maintaining order during the turbulent gold rush years.
Tanner helped organize and command the Skagway Vigilantes, a citizens’ group formed to preserve law and order during the period when the notorious outlaw Soapy Smith and his gang dominated the town. Organized lawlessness in Skagway culminated in Smith’s death on July 8, 1898.
Because of his leadership and composure during the effort to drive Smith’s gang from the city, Tanner was appointed Deputy United States Marshal by Marshal J. M. Shoup and served in that position for two years.
Tanner remained active in Skagway's civic affairs for many years. He served for five years on the Skagway City Council, was elected mayor three times, and also served for five years as municipal magistrate.
He was also active in fraternal organizations, including the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Arctic Brotherhood.
In addition to his political and civic career, Tanner operated a hardware store in Skagway and held business interests in the Home Power Company of Skagway.
Sources
Ferrell, Ed. Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850–1950, Volume 2, pp. 321–322 (2009).
Alaska Digital Archives, James Joseph Connors Photograph Collection, PCA 457.
Valentine, Emery
Emery Valentine was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo of the Pioneers of Alaska and one of the most influential civic leaders in the early history of Juneau.
Valentine was born in Dowagiac, Michigan, in 1858. On his mother’s side, his ancestry traces back to William Bradford, who arrived in America aboard the Mayflower in 1620.
At the age of ten, he crossed the plains from Michigan to Colorado, riding a small pony with an old overcoat for a saddle and a rope for stirrups. As a youth, he worked as a miner, but after losing a leg in a mining accident, he turned to another trade and apprenticed as a goldsmith and jeweler. Between 1876 and 1886, he owned and operated several jewelry stores in Colorado and Montana.
In 1886, Valentine moved to Juneau, Alaska, where he opened the E. Valentine Jewelry Store. From the beginning of his residence in Juneau, he became deeply involved in the community’s business, civic, and political life.
Valentine organized the Juneau Volunteer Fire Department and served as its first chief. He donated a specialized fire wagon that carried the slogan, “You ring the bell, and we’ll do the rest.”
He is also credited as being the father of the Juneau Public Library, reflecting his long-standing commitment to civic institutions and public life.
Following the incorporation of Juneau in 1900, Valentine served the city in several public offices. He was elected to the Juneau City Council in 1902 and later served six terms as mayor, from 1908 to 1918.
In territorial and national politics, Valentine was aligned with the Republican Party but supported the Bull Moose (Progressive) movement. He became one of the leaders of the insurgent political movement in Alaska and presided over the territorial convention that sent delegates to the Chicago convention, where Theodore Roosevelt was nominated.
Valentine married Josephine Scanlin on December 16, 1909, in Juneau. The marriage later ended in divorce in 1915.
Emery Valentine died in Juneau on September 10, 1930.
Sources
Alaska Weekly, September 19, 1930
Who's Who in Alaskan Politics: Biographical Dictionary of Alaskan Political Personalities, 1884–1974, Evangeline Atwood and Robert N. DeArmond