Photo Catalog Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
Courthouse Hill |
Image # |
62.4.3.35 |
Object Name |
Print, Photographic |
Date |
1905 |
Photographer |
Hunt, Harriet Elizabeth |
Location |
Ketchikan, Alaska |
Description |
Courthouse Hill Dibrell House and Main School with Deer Mountain to left. Ketchikan A City Historic Properties Survey, 1984, Tucker, Phil This elegant one-and-one-half story residence with tower built in the Queen Anne style for H.Z. Burkhart, a pioneer in the Alaska timber industry, has been a local landmark at the head of Main Street since 1904. In 1916, it was purchased by Walter C. Dibrell who added the east wing and garages. The tower, spire, and west porch are all original. This is the only Queen Anne style house remaining in Ketchikan, representing a building style which was quite popular in the early decades of Ketchikan development. The main entrance on the west side facing Main Street features a glassed-in verandah, typical of Ketchikan houses, with a gable above decorated with latticed wood shingles, scroll brackets, and a raking cornice. Appropriately, the gable window is elaborately trimmed. The imposing location of the house offsets its very simple cladding: 1X4 lap siding alternating with 1 x 12 bands at window heads and sill locations. The basement level is covered with cedar shingles. All porch, basement, and upper floor glazing is original. Main floor frames are original, although many windows have new glass. Built in the earliest years of Ketchikan when the Ketchikan Spruce Mills had just been founded (1903), the foundations are solid wood beams, partially founded today on concrete. Walls are 2X4 construction: Roof framing consists of 2X6 rafters, with special bracing supporting the tower. Floor framing is consistently 2X10 lumber. In the interior the original stained oak stair balusters, doors arid trim, and radiator covers remain. The dining room furniture of the Dibrells has been retained. The front porch is unaltered, even to the light fixtures and planters. Other original items include: the dining room plate rail and pantry, the metal radiators throughout the house, board ceilings in the east entry, stairs, furnace and brick chimney, kitchen cabinets (now in the basement), root cellar with sawdust insulation, and interior door trim throughout. In the tower, the original sash windows, radiators, and baseboards remain. Upstairs, even the original bathtub remains, framed into a more modern setting. Original cabinets still hang on the walls. The Monreans have painted the house white. Painting is particularly difficult with the steep sloping hill to the south and the three-story circular tower. Four stepped-concrete garages, built by the Dibrells, face onto Pine Street. Three of the four overhead garage doors are original. A later addition to the property, the garages have built-up roofs, surmounted by sod planted with grass. H.Z. Burkhart, original owner, was a founding partner of Ketchikan Power Company, the forerunner of Ketchikan Spruce Mills. Burkhart died October 28, 1909, but his widow continued to live there until Captain and Mrs. Walter C. Dibrell bought the house in 1916. Captain Dibrell was a superintendent in the U.S. Lighthouse Service and his wife was a retired teacher. The Dibrells sold the house in 1962 when they moved to Texas. Walter Dibrell celebrated his 105th birthday there on February 11, 1980. Subsequent owners of the house were Mr. and Mrs. James Walsh, with Pan American Airlines. They added the stairs to the attic over the addition for a fire escape and insulated the attic. Mr. and Mrs.Mernsey Monrean presently own 500 Main. They bought the house 14 years ago and have remodeled portions of the interior, modernizing the bathrooms and kitchen, and installing new ceilings in 1966. The exterior of the building, especially the west side, facing the stairs on Main Street, remains just as it has looked for decades. The sun porch has been enclosed, but the turret topped by a gold spire remains a Ketchikan landmark, marking the head of Main Street to pedestrians below, and visible all the way to Tongass Narrows and Ketchikan Spruce Mills beyond. |
Film Size |
6 1/2" x 8 1/2" Glass Plate |
Print size |
20.4 cm x 25.8 cm |
People |
Hunt, Harriet Elizabeth DibrelI, Walter C. Burkhart, H. Z. Walsh, James Monrean, Mernsey Reeves, Stephen |
Search Terms |
Ketchikan, Alaska Main School Main Street Methodist Church Hunt Family (related to) USLHS |
Relation |
Show Related Records... |
Credit line |
Ketchikan Museums: Tongass Historical Society Collection, THS 62.4.3.35 |