Tagged: Seward

The Seward depot as it looked during winter in the early 1920s, when it was still located near the foot of Adams Street.

Old depot is a monument to Seward’s survival as a railroad town

The old railroad depot in Seward is testament to the travails the city has gone through as a railroad town. Although constructed in 1917, the depot’s history can be traced back to the advent...

The 116-year-old Ballaine House in Seward home to Frank Ballaine, brother of the founder of Seward, John Ballaine. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Seward’s Ballaine House is reflection of flush days of Alaska Central Railway

John Ballaine was the entrepreneur primarily responsible for initiating construction of the Alaska Central Railway (ACR) across the Kenai Peninsula. He is also credited with founding the town on Seward, the southern terminus of...

Seward’s Brown & Hawkins Store still standing after 117 years

Charles E. Brown and Thomas William “T.W.” Hawkins both came to Alaska in 1898. Brown entered the territory via the route pioneered by the Hudson’s Bay Company – the McKenzie, Rat and Porcupine rivers,...

Talkeetna and the Alaska Commercial Company’s freighting gamble

Seward’s Jesse Lee Home fades to nothing with demolition of buildings

Seward’s Jesse Lee Home For Children passed into history at the end of 2020 when its remaining buildings were demolished. The first Jesse Lee Home, an orphanage and boarding school for Aleut children, opened...

Van Gilder Hotel has been serving Seward for almost 100 years

Van Gilder Hotel in 2012 The community of Seward, at the northern end of Resurrection Bay, had an auspicious start in 1903 when developers with the Alaska Central Railway (ACR) landed at the site...

Whirlwind trip to Kenai Peninsula historic sites – Summer 2017

Several weeks ago Betsy and I drove down to the Kenai Peninsula for the weekend. We hadn’t been there in about 15 years. While we were there Betsy let me check out a bunch...