Charter Members
Juneau Igloo Royalty
The first elected queen, Gussie Byington, made a homemade crown that was used 1980-1983. After that a metal and jeweled crown was purchased for the Queen Regent.
The King Regent was presented with a gold-plated No. 2 "muck stick" or round-pointed shovel for the Royal Scepter, and he has always worn a black derby hat of felt material. In mid-1987 materials were purchased and the auxiliary made new King and Queen Regent robes. None had been used before this date.
Each year the names of the King and Queen Regent of that year are engraved on small brass plates, and are attached to the shovel handle.
The first gold colored round-pointed shovel was used by then Gov. Bill Sheffield and Grand President Max Wells at the ground breaking ceremony of the Juneau Pioneers Home on
September 25, 1986.
Davis, Trevor
Primary Name: Davis, Trevor
Filed as: davis_trevor
Also known as: Trevor Davis
Occupation / Association: President (1963), Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo No. 6
Born:
Died:
Parents:
Spouse:
Children:
Associated places: Juneau, Alaska
Keywords: Trevor Davis, Davis Trevor, Juneau Men’s Igloo President 1963, Pioneers of Alaska Juneau
Biography
Trevor Davis served as President of the Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo No. 6 in 1963.
Sources
Pioneers of Alaska Juneau Men’s Igloo No. 6 records
Davis, Trevor P. Montgomery
Primary Name: Davis, Trevor P. Montgomery
Filed as: davis_trevor_p_montgomery
Also known as: Trevor P. Davis, Trevor Davis
Occupation / Association: Photographer; Boat Operator; Business Owner; Charter Member, Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6
Born: 1892, Alameda, California
Died: 1990, Juneau, Alaska
Parents:
Spouse: Carol Beery Davis
Children: Sylvia Davis, Shirley Davis, Constance Davis, Patte Davis
Associated places: Juneau Alaska, Alameda California, Seattle Washington, San Francisco California
Keywords: Trevor P Montgomery Davis, Trevor Davis photographer, Snap Shoppe Juneau, Juneau photographers, Here and There in Southeast Alaska
Biography
Trevor P. Montgomery Davis was a charter member of the Juneau Men's Igloo No. 6, where he served a term as Secretary.
Davis was born in 1892 in Alameda, California, where his mother, Frances, went for the birth. Within three months, the family returned to Juneau. At the age of twelve, he began working on the Davis properties.
In 1910, he purchased a sailboat and converted it to a gas boat in partnership with his brother Cedric. In 1914, the brothers traded the small boat for the Cordelia D and began operating a charter business for hunting and cruising. Trevor earned an operator's and pilot’s license for a 100-ton vessel and, in 1917, completed the requirements for an engineer’s license at the Duthrie Shipyards in Seattle, Washington.
He later joined the United States Navy and was stationed at Bremerton, Washington; San Diego, California; and the Great Lakes Naval Station in Chicago, Illinois.
Photography became a major interest for Davis beginning in 1912 when he acquired his first camera. He developed a technique for oil-tinting enlarged photographs and sold his work at the Nugget Shop and other gift stores in Juneau in June. Established photographers Winter & Pond and Case & Draper encouraged him and provided photographs and advice.
In 1921, Davis exhibited his photographs in San Francisco, and in 1926, he published a booklet of his early images titled Here and There in Southeast Alaska.
Trevor was one of seven members of the committee that selected the Alaska state flag and voted for the design that was ultimately adopted in 1927.
He was also a charter member of the American Legion and the Juneau Yacht Club. As a member of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce for forty-eight years, he promoted numerous civic projects, including the development of Juneau’s first small boat harbor and breakwater. Davis also wrote articles about his experiences in Southeast Alaska for newspapers and magazines.
In the spring of 1921, he met Carol Beery, who had come to Juneau and was searching for the wild violets displayed in shop windows. Davis offered to show her where they grew. The trip involved traveling aboard the Cordelia D and reaching Sheep Creek Basin via the Thane tramway. The excursion began a romance, and the two were married in 1922. They raised four daughters: Sylvia, Shirley, Connie, and Patte.
In 1934, Davis opened a photographic business on Seward Street where he developed, printed, and tinted photographs. He became an Eastman Kodak dealer, and the Snap Shoppe operated successfully for twenty-five years. One of his well-known photographs, Juneau’s Harbor Lights, required a one-hour exposure on a clear night in 1942. When a passing fishing boat disturbed the reflection, he was forced to repeat the entire exposure to achieve the desired image.
His work emphasized contrasts and composition, particularly winter light and shadow. As photography evolved, he expanded from black-and-white images to color photography and accumulated an extensive collection of slides and films. Many friends and community members attended his public presentations. While working for Prince William Sound Canneries, he filmed salmon runs and bears on color motion picture film.
After retiring from the photography business, Davis developed the Pinewood Park subdivision. He and his wife later piloted their boat, the Sylvita, to the Seattle World’s Fair, where they joined family and friends.
In his later years, he traveled widely, including a trip across the eastern United States with a Tlingit dance group during the U.S. Bicentennial, journeys across Alaska during the state’s Centennial celebration, visits to relatives on the West Coast, and travel in the South Pacific.
Davis later authored a pictorial history of the city titled Looking Back on Juneau – The First Hundred Years.
Trevor Davis died at the Pioneers’ Home in Juneau in 1990 at the age of ninety-seven and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery. He was survived by his wife and daughters, Sylvia, Shirley, and Constance.
Sources
Gastineau Channel Memories 1880-1959, p.119
Tags: Trevor P Montgomery Davis, Trevor Davis, Davis Trevor, Juneau photographers, Snap Shoppe Juneau, Juneau Men's Igloo No 6, Alaska flag committee, Juneau Yacht Club, American Legion Juneau
Davis, Cedric P. Montgomery
Primary Name: Davis, Cedric P. Montgomery
Filed as: davis_cedric_p_montgomery
Also known as: Cedric P. Montgomery Davis
Occupation / Association: Charter Member, Juneau Men’s Igloo; mariner; miner; U.S. Navy Quartermaster
Born: 1894, Juneau, Alaska
Died: 1977, Juneau, Alaska
Parents:
Spouse: Never married
Children:
Associated places: Juneau, Alaska; Crestof Island, Alaska; Taku River, Alaska; Nome, Alaska; Seattle, Washington; Mexico
Keywords: Cedric P Montgomery Davis, Cedric Davis Juneau, Davis family Juneau, Pinewood Park subdivision, Juneau Men’s Igloo charter member
Biography
Cedric P. Montgomery Davis was a charter member of the Juneau Men’s Igloo.
Davis was born in Juneau in 1894. His experience with boats, engines, and navigation, in partnership with his brother Trevor, led him to enlist in the U.S. Navy during World War I. He served as a Quartermaster aboard a sub-chaser, was later reassigned to the battleship Oregon, and subsequently transferred to a freighter operating in the Atlantic, which allowed him to visit his mother’s sister in England.
In the early 1920s, Cedric operated a boat for the Hearst-Chichagof Mining Company and owned a mine on Crestof Island. He enjoyed prospecting there and along the Taku River.
At the onset of World War II, Cedric worked for the U.S. Army in Nome, operating the diesel electrical plant. When not working aboard boats, he stayed at the old Davis family home on Sixth Street with his sister Cordelia and her family.
After his sister and her husband moved to Seattle, Cedric made one of the smaller Sixth Street Davis houses his home. In the 1950s, he joined his brother, Trevor, in developing the Pinewood Park subdivision on land owned by the Davis family. He also helped construct cabins for Carol and her daughters on land obtained by Carol under the U.S. Small Tract Act.
When the vessel Cordelia D was traded for the trim Sylvita, Cedric traveled with Carol and Trevor aboard the new boat to the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962.
In later years, he enjoyed spending winters in Mexico and visiting Seattle.
Friends remembered Cedric as a kind and generous man who liked to see everyone happy, especially children, to whom he frequently gave money for ice cream. He never married.
Cedric died at Bartlett Memorial Hospital in 1977 at the age of 83 and was buried next to his parents at Evergreen Cemetery in Juneau.
Sources
Gastineau Channel Memories 1880–1959, p. 119
Tags: Cedric P Montgomery Davis, Cedric Davis, Davis family Juneau, Juneau Men’s Igloo, Pinewood Park subdivision
Alaskan Hotel
The Alaskan Hotel is the oldest operating hotel in the Capital City of Juneau, and is among the oldest in continous operation in Alaska.
It is associated with events that have made significant contributions to local and state history; and is an excellent architectural example of the transitional change between 19th and early 20th century.
Although Juneau came into being as a placer gold boom camp, in 1880, unlike many subsequent "boom and bust" camps, it became apparent that a city of some consequence would develop here. Placers, expectedly, were soon mined out; but the presence of vast deposits of quartz lode was established.
This developed into two large world- famous hard-rock mining and milling properties—the Treadwell Mines on adjacent Douglas Island, and the Alaska-Juneau Gold Mining Company —whose extensive surface works were within view of the Alaskan Hotel when it was built.
Juneau also diversified. It had five of the 27 newspapers in Alaska in 1907. It became a regional shipping and distribution point, with extensive docks and warehouses; fisheries, hydro-electric power, banking and lumbering adding to the economic affluence.
In 1900 the Territorial capital was moved from Sitka; Juneau also became one of the three District Court division headquarters; and in 1909, one of four. The City incorporated at that time.
The capital move from Sitka was slow, and occupied almost the first decade. Indeed the present capital building, although partially funded in 1911, was not completed until 1931.
A governor's mansion was planned, and several other executive buildings were built or leased, during the first decade, as government became an important part of Juneau's cosmopolitan life style.
By 1905 the population of Juneau and Douglas had exceeded 6,000 and was growing. The first Territorial Legislature convened in 1913. As a frontier mining camp, Juneau had developed a coterie of miner's boarding and rooming houses; but few hotels.
In the earliest years, the few transient hostelries— Franklin House, Caine, Circle City and Central Hotels were more in the pattern of sourdough roadhouses. Franklin House, and Caine were upgraded and the Occidental and Gastineau added. There was an obvious need for more modern and quality hostelries.
It was known that Marie Bergmann, associated with two of the older hotels since 1896, was seeking outside financing for a 64 room structure. Into this breach, in 1912, stepped an interesting triuvirate: Jules B. Caro, promoter-entrepreneur, and the McCloskey brothers, James and John.
Veteran miners of the Canadian Cariboo, the McCloskey's had finally struck a rich pay-streak in the $25,000,000 diggings at Atlin, across the mountains northeast of Juneau in British Columbia. They acquired a prime location, next door to the declining Central, in close proximity to the steamship docks and central to the business district.
Ground was broken in late 1912; and the well-furnished, attractive modern hotel opened with a champagne gala on September 1, 1913.
Its place in the community was noted in an editorial under the masthead of the Daily Alaska Dispatch:
THE NEW HOTEL The owners and lessees of the Alaskan Hotel are to be congratulated at giving Juneau a modern hostelry. Juneau has needed more hotels. Our old time favorite, the Occidental, has worked faithfully to accommodate an overflowing town during the past twelve months. With the new Caine hotel there should be ample hotel accommodations for the traveling public until next spring. There is room in Juneau for all the new hotels. All will do their share and the traveling public will not be forced to seek shelter here and there, much to their discomfort.
A pioneer resident—then a teenager—Trevor Davis, recalls his plate-glass observation of the exciting Grand Opening: the McCloskey brothers milling among a well-dressed crowd, shaking magnums of champagne, the corks aimed at the newly-installed chandeliers and the gleaming ceiling of the lobby. Thereafter the McCloskey's maintained an extremely low and silent profile.
The Hotel opened under a management arrangement with P.L. Gemmett as President and Manager and F.H. McCoy, Secretary-Treasurer. In 1915, they were replaced by M.P. Goodman and E.E. Burlock, and in 1918 by a single manager, A.T. Spatz.
James McCloskey then assumed his first and only active management, for three years; until a long-term lease arrangement with local businessmen Charles Miller and Mike Pusich was announced.
After 18 months this was cancelled and Dave Housel assumed management until eventual sale by the McCloskey's. Management, thereafter, stabilized.
The Bergmann Hotel, which opened within four months after the Alaskan, quickly found its roll as an apartment-residential hotel. Later generations saw the building of the substantial Baranof, further up Franklin Street, and most recently The Prospector and Hilton.
By this time the Alaskan had become the Northlander. Now under new management and its original name, a restored Alaskan Hotel looks forward to perpetuating its landmark status into the second century of Juneau's history.
Davis House
Rare among the oldest quality residences built in early-day Juneau, the John M. Davis House ranks as the first mansion of exceptional architectural charm and distinction.
This building bears rich association with the history and lifestyle of Juneau after 1892, including many persons of prominence (including the builders) and significant events. It has been considered a "landmark" structure by Juneauites through most of this century.
Frances Davis—wife of the builder—was a wealthy artist from England who visited early-day Juneau to paint and to observe the frontier gold rush camp. She met miner and prospector Mr. Davis on the ship which brought her into Juneau.
After their marriage, the Davis's built the "mansion" on the further side of the old Boston Mining Claim—paying $25 to clear title in order to build on this choice view site.
Because Mrs. Davis was wealthy they also had 6th Street cleared in order to better proceed with their ambitious home-building project. There were no other residences then on the conmanding part of Sixth Street, prior to this construction of the J.M. Davis House.
The west wing of the large, at the time, pretentious "Mansion" was added by the Davis's about 1900 to provide Mrs. Davis with a studio for her painting. Some of her oil paintings were considered the best in the Alaska State Museum collection at Juneau.
The impressive house was the childhood residence of the Davis's son, Trevor, who was educated at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, and became a pioneer photographer of Alaskan scenes, prominent in civic and business affairs in Juneau.
For some years the house was later leased to be the residence of the Admiral commanding the U.S. Coast Guard District, with headquarters in Juneau.
Mrs. Trevor Davis, septugenarian daughter-in-law of the J.M. Davis's is a former Poet Laureate of Alaska, who has also written and studied the music, art and poetry of the Tlingit lndians--and has other made significant cultural contributions to Alaska. She is a noted long-time musician and teacher, active in Juneau public, social and cultural affairs.
Frances House
Built in 1898, the Frances House, is significant for its architectural character, its place in the historic development of the mining town, and association with important historic people who built and lived in the structure during the early development of Juneau.
Eighteen years after the discovery of gold in Juneau, Jerry Eicherly, postmaster and owner of the post office, built the Frances House. During that time, the house was leased to a Superintendent of the Perseverance Mine.
In 1911, he sold it to John Rustgard, who owned it until 1927. Mr. Rustgard was the Attorney General of the Territory of Alaska from 1920 until 1933 as well as the author of a number of books on politics and economics.
When the builidng was condemned by the city in 1927 to make way for the building of Capital School, Frances Davis purchased it. Frances, one of the first recognized Alaskan painters, was married to John M. Davis, the assistant manager of the Nowell Gold Mining Co.
Her sons moved the house fifty feet to where it rests today. The building has been known to the Community as "The Frances" since that time. The house remained in the Davis family under the stewardship of Trevor Davis, pioneer photographer and a prominent person throughout the history of Juneau in the civic and business community.
It is an outstanding example of late nineteenth century domestic vernacular architecture found in Juneau. Essentially the house is architecturally typical in materials, construction and scale for the period it was built in Juneau. It is significant for these reasons, but more so because stylistically this house is unique. A roofline like that found on the Frances House is not found elsewhere in Juneau. The design is a blending of different architectural influences from the continental U. S. with improvised changes to make it appropriate for Juneau.
Detailing embodies unusually good design composition, and the quality of the craftsmanship is time-tested, in spite of minor changes in detailing that were made when the single family house was converted to boarding rooms in the early 1900's, when and the basement converted to an apartment in 1929.
The relationship of house to street is uniquely adapted to Juneau's topography and represents an interesting solution to a street regrading. The house is in a historic residential area where many of the "best" homes of early pioneers were located. It is a well known local landmark, appreciated for its reminder of Juneau's history. The structure retains character individually and as a significant example of Juneau's residential stock. The original fabric is intact and therefore its historic integrity as well.