The woman of The House of Wickersham

Mary Kay Havens didn’t used to like history.

“I hated it. I got a C in history,” she said.

But since 2014, she’s been entrenched in it as the docent for the House of Wickersham, a state historic site located at 213 7th Avenue in Juneau.

Five days a week for five months of the year, Havens gives people tours of the home once occupied by James Wickersham, a U.S. district judge in Alaska in the early 1900s and Alaska’s first delegate to Congress. He served seven non-consecutive terms from 1909 to 1933.

Wickersham was born in Illinois and moved to Washington state after getting married. He built a home, had a law practice, became a judge and served on the Washington State Legislature before President McKinley appointed him to be a federal district judge in Alaska serving an area of 300,000 square miles. Wickersham originally moved to Eagle, then Fairbanks before settling in Juneau.

“It was the frontier then. People were finding gold, they were making gold claims, they were fighting over that, they were shooting each other and hanging each other and he knew with his background, he could come here and really do something. And he loved the outdoors,” Havens explained.

Still, she wonders why Wickersham came to Alaska at all, bringing his wife Debbie and son Howard, who died at the age of 8.

“He was 43 years old when he came to Alaska. He had made it in Tacoma. He was a lawyer and judge. I’m thinking they had a good life,” Havens said.

But why does anyone move to Alaska, Havens asked rhetorically.

“Kind if like why we come now. There’s just the excitement of it.”

Havens is originally from Texas and has a daughter and grandchildren there. She owns a townhouse in Plano. She worked in technology marketing before making the dramatic switch to historian.

Her inspiration to do so came 20 years ago when she visited Williamsburg, Virginia. She met a man who volunteered there.

“He said, ‘I used to be a nuclear physicist and I retired, and this is the most fun I ever had.’ I thought, ‘If I ever get to retire, I want to do something like that,’” Havens said.

A few years ago, she started “shopping around” for a retirement gig. She looked on sites like volunteer.gov.

“I had a resume that had volunteer work on top and summarized my talents on the bottom,” she said.

Havens has another daughter who lives in Anchorage, so she wanted to be in the state to be closer to her.

“I just would do whatever I needed to do to live in Alaska,” Havens said.

Even absorb herself in history. She found the opening for the House of Wickersham and applied. It offered housing on the second floor and a stipend. Havens just had to get herself to Juneau and feed herself. It was perfect.

When she called the Alaska State Parks, which maintains the house, she found out the opening usually gets about seven applicants.

“I was like, ‘Seven?! For this sweet deal?’ I figured I’d be up against thousands of people,” Havens said.

When she got the volunteer job, Havens ordered two editions of “Old Yukon: Tales, Trails, and Trials” written by Wickersham to start studying up. When she got to Juneau in 2014, she read everything she could on him and his family. Haven said she now loves history.

In 2014, about 1,500 people visited the House of Wickersham. Last year, the number increased to 2,000 and she hopes that figure keeps growing.

“I hope I’ve made people appreciate this house more. I want them to have a good time. I want them to tell their friends, ‘It’s hard to find but you need to go up those steps and see the House of Wickersham,’” Havens said.

Between 20 to 25 people visit the House of Wickersham each day and Havens said everyone relates to the house differently. She told one visitor that some members of the Wickersham family were buried in Washington. That person ended up visiting their gravesites and sending Havens a map of the cemetery and photos. She keeps them in a photo album with other historical mementos.

“Everybody adds to the story as they come through. They seem to get really involved. I think it’s a place that gets people excited about history,” Havens said.

Caretaker for the House Ann McPherson said it’s Havens that gets people excited.

“Mary Kay is so knowledgeable and she just has a thirst for it. She kind of gave it to me. She has such a way with sharing the information. I’m always amazed when someone came for the tour and they send her something. They clearly came away with an impression,” McPherson said.

On a recent Monday, during lulls between guests, Havens was watching a two and a half hour video Ruth Allman had made about the house. Allman was Wickersham’s niece who inherited the house before selling it in 1984.

Havens loves what she does and advises other retirees to follow suit.

“I’m 70 and to do something new now is just such a treat,” she said.

“People I know that are rich have a home in Colorado and a home in Dallas, and I’m not that rich, but I have a home in Juneau and a home in Texas.”

She doesn’t know how much long she’ll be guiding people around the House of Wickersham. But she’s far from ready to hang up her docent hat.

“I’d like to stay here a lot longer,” Havens said, “as long as possible.”