Area less than one acre Opened 1901 | Built 1901 (1901) NRHP Reference # 76000361 Added to NRHP 12 December 1976 | |
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The Cape Nome Roadhouse is the last remaining historical roadhouse on the Iditarod Trail. Built in 1900 to accommodate travelers to the Nome area during the Nome Gold Rush, it was soon expanded. It has a profile resembling that of a typical New England saltbox, although its main entrance is on what would normally be considered the side of such a building. Its oldest portion is a log structure, which was expanded with lumber wood framing, and the whole building is now covered with clapboard siding. It is the only structure surviving from the route of a 650-mile (1,050 km) delivery of diphtheria serum in 1925 achieved by a relay of dogsled teams. The roadhouse declined with the advent of aviation to the area, and was used as an orphanage, a military communications facility during World War II, and saw used in the later 20th century as a retail establishment.
The roadhouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.