Description on back in Russian with English translation: The very first church in Juneau, where all Christian communities took turns holding services. Built by Roman Catholic priests. Later passed into Presbyterian ownership. Afterward beer and soda water were brewed in it. Now on this site there stands the new five-story concrete New Cain Hotel. Photo taken in the early 1900s.
Courtesy of the Alaska State Library Historical Collections,ASL-P243-2-039
Description on back in Russian with English translation: The very first church in Juneau, where all Christian communities too turns holding services. Built by Roman Catholic priests. Later passed into Presbyterian ownership. Afterward beer and soda water were brewed in it. Now on this site there stands the new five-story concrete New Cain Hotel. Time period: early 1900s.
Comments (8)
Add commentOK, where is the new Cain
OK, where is the new Cain hotel? Never heard of it...
The new Cain Hotel was built in 1914.
Here is a link to a picture. http://vilda.alaska.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/cdmg21/id/11076/rec/1
Guess the text threw me off.
Guess the text threw me off. " Now on this site there stands the new five-story concrete New Cain Hotel" I wasn't aware of any new hotels other than Aspen. I guess empire views 1914 as recent.
Something just doesn't seem
Something just doesn't seem right about this. I always thought this building was near Main Street. And according to the picture of the Hotel Cain and the description of the caption, there must be two additional floors in the basement.
I think the key to solving
I think the key to solving this mystery might be in the first sentence: Description on back in Russian with English translation.
Surely this isn't too confusing?
The inscription was written a hundred years ago, not last week. Justlivin's link shows what is now the Senate Building, if I'm not mistaken. I'm not sure where all the confusion is coming from, it all seems very clear. This picture should be on a placard down in front of the building. Wonderful history.
Another possible location
Historical columnist Jack Marshall walked the downtown area today and put forth another possibility — the Hotel Cain may be the earliest incarnation of the Gastineau Apartments.
A current photo I found of the apartments indicates another floor was added at a later date, if this is the building. There's a line going across the apartment building that matches the place where the 1918 parapet begins.
I'm going to check it out myself tonight after work.
Jack said the building has the right number of windows on the second and third floors. The small building to its right certainly is about the size of the park next to the apartments. Why they'd call it a five-story building in 1918 is a mystery to me, unless there are hefty basements, or something we can't see behind the main building.
(That looks a lot like a mounted elk head sticking out of the building front next door — to the left — so I'm guessing that's an Elk's Lodge.)
Original Elk's Lodge
If you cut and paste the link below, there is a 1908 image of the original Elk's Lodge that shows the stonework entryway also shown in the lower left part of the 1918 photo showing the Hotel Cain.
http://www.juneau.org/cddftp/HSD/property_page.php?UID=108