Area less than one acre Architectural style log structure Opened 1926 Function Restaurant, Hotel, Museum | Built 1926 NRHP Reference # 78003431 Added to NRHP 31 July 1978 | |
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Location Mile 128 on the Steese Highway, Central, Alaska Built by Erickson,Riley; Stade,John | ||
The Central House, at Mile 128 on the Steese Highway in Central, Alaska, is a log structure that was built in 1926 by Riley Erickson and John Stade, replacing an 1894 log and sod structure that was burned in a 1925 fire. It served as a roadhouse restaurant and hotel, and it has also been known as AHRS Site No. CIR-001 and as Erickson & Stade's. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Located on Crooked Creek, it was deemed significant for its historical role as a central focus for miners of other creeks that were Birch Creek tributaries and for serving travelers.
The building is about 52 by 20 feet (15.8 m × 6.1 m) in dimension, and the main logs are spruce joined by saddle corners. The roof is dirt-insulated and covered with galvanized metal roofing. In 1978, the lower three courses of logs of the walls were pretty well rotted, due to frequent creek flooding, and the building was decaying rapidly.
It was reached by a wagon road of the Alaska Road Commission in 1908. It was closed as a business in 1948 or 1949. In 1977, the Circle District Historical Society had plans to it and to use it as an historic museum and library, as well as a meeting place and community center.
Its preservation was hoped to remind locals, who had known miners 50 years before, "of the spirit, fortitude, and hope of an earlier time."