Judge
Wickersham's House
The Judge Wickersham House at Alaskaland is an historical remnant of the original.
On April 15,
1904, Wickersham bought the lot at the northeast corner of First and Noble Streets for
$175. He carried newly cut lumber for his new house on his back from the sawmill to his
lot, a few blocks away.
The new house consisted of a "sitting room", 14 x 16 feet with a
gable roof, and an attached shed-roofed kitchen, 12 x 14 feet. To the east of the kitchen
was a covered porch and wood shed which extended back to the northeast corner of the lot,
leading to the "closet."
This first part of the house was completed by the middle of June and the walls
were then papered and the floors covered with Japanese matting. Until they left Fairbanks
at the end of August, the Judge and his wife Debbie slept in a tent pitched at the front
door of the house, for Debbie's health.
Judge Wickersham returned to Fairbanks in the middle of March, 1905, bringing
a new cylinder phonograph (carefully packed in a large crate) back to Fairbanks, over the
trail by dogsled from Valdez. He put in a new carpet, bought a sideboard, and had electric
lights installed. Debbie arrived in the beginning of June and they moved into their house.
Flower and vegetable gardens were planted that summer.
At the beginning of September, Wickersham again rented the house out and left
for Seattle. At the end of the year, he went to Washington D.C. for reconfirmation
hearings, and did not return to Fairbanks until July 23, 1906, after spending nearly a
month to travel from Washington, D.C. to Fairbanks.
Addition
Shortly after Debbie and the Judge returned, work began on the
addition of two new rooms to the house. The new rooms are the present parlor and small
northwest bedroom; the original sitting room becoming the dining room. The wood shed was
probably closed in and a bedroom completed in a shed-roofed addition on the north side of
the house.
Through the end of August, 1906, the Judge and Debbie worked on the new part
of the house and installed a heating plant, for they planned to spend the winter in their
house for the first time. All was completed by October.
Wickersham sold the house for $1,500 in 1922.
Moved to Alaskaland
At the time the house was moved to Alaskaland in 1968, the
original kitchen, woodshed, closet, porch and a north addition were believed to be too
deteriorated to move. The kitchen was recreated in 1986. The original sitting room of
1904, now the dining room, and the parlor and northwest bedroom or study of 1906 have been
restored.
The house has been furnished to suggest how it might have looked when occupied
by the Wickershams between 1906 and 1910.
The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is
located now at Alaskaland, where it serves as "A Small Museum, Devoted to the life
and times of Judge Wickersham and the authentic recreation of the early days in
Fairbanks."
The Wickersham House is a
project of
The Tanana-Yukon Historical Society
Judge Wickersham is known for more than his house, though. It was through his
efforts that the first Courthouse was built in
downtown Fairbanks.