My friend Pizza Joe is overworried about Fort Seward.
Our local government, on the other hand, has been underworried about the Fort for about 70 years, so things have a way of balancing out.
Joe is particularly concerned the Alaska Indian Arts building will decay past saving. That’s not likely. AIA has been empty now for a couple years, but like other Fort structures, it was built to last.
If a few years of neglect was a threat to the Fort, not much of it would be standing today.
The question isn’t so much what will happen to AIA as it is, “What plan does the Port Chilkoot Company have for the future of its largest buildings? And, “How can the Haines Borough, private investors and others contribute to the restoration and development of them?”
These are legitimate questions for the assembly, Port Chilkoot Co., and anyone else with a passing interest in our town. Like it or not, Fort Seward is our town’s architectural showpiece. It’s the pretty image that magazines and websites use to define us. It’s also a magnet for commercial and residential development that may not have happened in Haines without it.
We owe thanks to the Fort’s private owners for their upkeep efforts. Maintaining tall, aging, wooden buildings battered most of the year by atrocious weather is no small feat. We also should thank newcomers who have rebuilt houses and started businesses in the Fort’s smaller buildings.
Following a few booms and busts related to the cruise industry, much of the Fort is being restored, if incrementally, by owners of homes and small businesses. That’s a good thing.
What seems evident is that while private investment will save most homes and smaller buildings, the same can’t necessarily be said of its largest structures, including AIA, the barracks, and to a lesser extent, the Post Exchange Building (Fort Seward Lodge) and Hotel Halsingland.
Preserving, restoring and opening these buildings will require a greater level of investment than anything that’s been seen in the Fort since its buildings came into private ownership in 1947. And the cost of preservation – much less restoration – grows with each passing year.
The tourism industry — and specifically cruise and hotel companies — would seem to be the most obvious saviors. But even in the heyday of large cruise ships docking at Port Chilkoot in the late 1990s, when Fort properties were at a premium, only mom and pop operations were buying in. Jeff Butcher’s inability to find a buyer for Hotel Halsingland also strongly suggests the industry’s big money isn’t interested in old, capital-intensive buildings.
Local Native organizations might also invest. Chilkoot Indian Association, for example, recently purchased the small-ship dock at the south end of Portage Cove and reportedly was considering some form of ownership or partnership with Haines Sheldon Museum. Alaska Indian Arts served as a Native cultural center for 50 years. It could become tribally operated Chilkoot Indian Arts overnight – if someone were to find a big enough pile of money for purchase, restoration and renovation.
As our state and federal governments are not presently serving as reliable sources of largesse – Alaska can hardly afford to pave its roads, for crying out loud – we could always pray that someone the likes of Chris Thorgesen arrives at the Fort one day, falls in love, and bets his life’s fortune on the place.
That could happen but it’s a pipe dream, not a plan. What’s doable is what happened at the harbor 30 years ago. People started dreaming of what could be. They started drawing up plans, holding meetings, and knocking on doors of people and agencies who had money or connections to expand the harbor.
Twenty-five years later, a pile of money showed up largely out of the blue, in the form of a statewide bond for ports and harbors.
For a start on the Fort, the Haines Borough Assembly or its Planning Commission could call a meeting with this item alone on its agenda: What’s to happen to Fort Seward’s largest buildings? Invite owners of the buildings, Haines Economic Development Commission, the tourism director, the real estate companies and anyone else with an interest.
Start a conversation about what can be done. Keep notes. Schedule a second meeting. Repeat.