What is Kimball’s Store?
This is the only remaining commercial building in its original site from 1915 Anchorage!
What Makes It Historical?
Pennsylvania-born merchant, Irving Kimball, had a rough introduction to Alaska, getting shipwrecked in Arctic ice and stranded in Barrow for two years before he could return to Portland! Did that put him off the Last Frontier? Definitely not! With his new wife, Della, Mr. Kimball returned to Alaska in 1902 and set up a trading post to serve the railroad that was being developed out of Seward. That project went bankrupt aftter four years, so the Kimballs moved to Latouche Island on Prince William Sound, where they spent 8 years, from 1907 until 1915, operating a general store for the island’s copper miners!
When those mines ran dry, the resourceful Kimballs found a new project with new workers to supply in the budding railroad town of Ship Creek, later known as Anchorage. For $500, Mr. Kimball bought Lot 1, Block 51 in the town’s first land auction and constructed his unusual two-story store, Kimball’s Dry Goods, between July and September of 1915, opening it for business in November! Active in city affairs when not selling merchandise, he continued to buy up land, becoming one of the largest landowners in Anchorage, but it was not to last: on September 7, 1921, Mr. Kimball succumbed to a global pandemic of encephalitis lethargica!
Mrs. Kimball outlasted her husband by 37 years, and during that time, she rebuilt the store twice and oversaw the transition from groceries to hardware and general merchandise. From 1950 until 2002, her daughter, Decema, helped her, then took over the store, dividing it into a dry goods half and a paint store half. Since 2002, the historic building has housed the Kobuk Coffee Company!
How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?
- Become a member of the Cook Inlet Historical Society!
- Donate to the Alaska Historical Society!
- Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!
How Do I Get There?
504 W 5th Avenue
Anchorage, AK 99501
(Take Me There!)
When Should I Visit?
The coffee shop is open Monday to Saturday from 9:00 AM until 8:00 PM and on Sundays from 12:00 PM until 5:00 PM!