National Register Listing

Kimball's Store

a.k.a. Kimball Building;Kinball Dry Goods;Gold Pan;Kobuk Coffee Com

500 and 504 W. Fifth Ave., Anchorage, AK

Kimball's Store is significant for its association with the early commercial development of Anchorage. The building is also notable for its association with Irving Kimball, an early trader in the Arctic and south-central Alaska during the period from the 1890s to 1921. The store is also significant because it is the only remaining commercial building in situ from the original Anchorage townsite of 1915.

Irving L. Kimball worked in Alaska as a trader and merchant for many years before starting his business in Anchorage. He was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Oregon as a young man. In 1897, he signed on as ship's storekeeper on an Arctic trading vessel. After successful trading voyages to Nome and the Bering Sea, Kimball's vessel was caught in the Arctic ice and shipwrecked. After being stranded in Barrow for two years, Kimball made his way to Nome and back to Portland. Following his marriage to Della Carpenter, Kimball returned to Alaska in 1902 and set up a trading post at Resurrection Bay, the coastal terminus of the proposed Alaska Central Railroad. Kimball's trading post was one of the first stores in the community that became known as Seward. The railroad project went bankrupt four years later, so Kimball and his wife moved to Latouche Island in Prince William Sound and operated a general store from 1907-1915. When the copper mining industry went into decline on Latouche Island, the Kimballs moved to Ship Creek, the newly designated construction headquarters for the Alaska Railroad, to start another store. At the time they arrived in the community which was to become known as Anchorage, Ship Creek was a tent city. A townsite was laid out and Irving Kimball acquired a parcel of land known as Lot 1, Block 51 in the first townsite auction for $500. In July of 1915, he began construction on one of the first commercial buildings of the new Anchorage townsite.

While the store was being constructed during the summer of 1915, the Kimball family lived in a tent on the back of their lot. The building was completed in September 1915, and the family moved into the living quarters located at the rear of the store. Kimball's Store was unusual in Anchorage at the time of its construction because it was one of the few buildings of more than one story in early Anchorage. The store was one of the few retail outlets on Fifth Avenue, as most early commercial buildings in the new townsite were constructed on Fourth Avenue. The store opened in November of 1915 and the Kimballs sold general merchandise. Mr. Kimball operated the store until his death in 1921. The family continued operating the business, selling general merchandise. In 1935 groceries were discontinued and the business focused on the sale of hardware and dry goods. As Anchorage grew to become the largest city in Alaska after World War II, Kimball's Store was centrally located in the growing downtown business district. After Mrs. Kimball passed away in 1958, the store was divided into two commercial outlets. The dry goods business continued in the east half while the west half of the store was rented to Preservative Paints. In 1963, the west storefront was rented to the Kobuk Coffee Company.

Kimball's Store is the only surviving, original commercial establishment in situ from the original 1915 townsite in Anchorage. It is the best-preserved early commercial building of its kind in the community and has had relatively few alterations to the exterior.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1986.