Walk around Palmer Pt. 1 June 26th, 2009

Categories: Around Palmer, History

    

Have you ever driven or walked through Palmer, and wondered what all those old buildings were, and if they are still used? Have you ever been to the Colony House Museum? Have you ever wondered why there was a fenced-in bell near the library?

Today I walked around Palmer and photographed many of those buildings, as well as inquired of their history. Here is what I saw and learned. All photos are expandable if clicked on.

Palmer DepotPalmer DepotPalmer Depot

                          1                                                     2                                             3
UAF Ag ResearchPalmer Pre-Trial FacilityPalmer Water Tower
                          4                                                     5                                             6

Photo 1: Palmer Train Depot
Photo 2: Borough Green, Old Mat. Colony Trading Post (Now home of The Red Beet), Palmer Water Tower in Background
Photo 3: Colony Inn and Restaurant
Photo 4: UAF Agriculture Research in the Matanuska Valley
Photo 5: Palmer Courthouse/Pre-Trial Facility
Photo 6: Palmer Water Tower, Old Matanuska Maid buildings
Borough Building - FrontBorough Building - BackBorough Gym
                          7                                                     8                                             9

Photo 7: Front of Borough Building
Photo 8: Back of Borough Building, Lazy Mountain to the left, Byers Peak in the center.
Photo 3: Borough Gym

Written by Marty Van Diest 4 Comments »

This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 1:30 am and is filed under Around Palmer, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  1. Sandra France Nichols said at March 19th, 2010 at 8:50 pm

    You should also identify the buildings with what they were in the olden days. I was born in 1950, left AK in 1979, and now the buildings by the old school, I think the Cafe was the boarding house for gov worker. and so on. Is the old Mat dairy still there? Does the noon steam whistle still go off at noon and 5 pm? That was when I was a kid in school.

  2. Sharon Lasselle said at April 29th, 2010 at 12:01 pm

    This is very cool. Myself and several friends are doing a project on the Matanuska Colony, including a webpage with pictures and interviews. Would it be ok if we put a link for your site on our webpage? This is our page-it is still a work in progress.
    http://web.me.com/css12/Matanuska_Colony_Project/The_Matanuska_Colony_Project.html

  3. Stewart said at January 5th, 2011 at 10:14 am

    I’ve got some pictures up too. At http://nopeople.com/homepage/Palmer/index.html

    Have a look at the comparison from 1939 to now at http://nopeople.com/homepage/Palmer/page6.html

  4. Jim Strohmer said at January 26th, 2011 at 8:00 pm

    Hi there staff,

    I have been searching for historical information on the Palmer Boarding Home that was open in the 1960-70’s (at least). I can find nothing. I believe it was housed in the present “Butte Cafe” on the Old Palmer Road near the corner of Bodenburg Butte Rd. Any insight into that Boarding Home and its history would be appreciate.d

    Thanks for any info,

    Jim
    Grand Rapids MI

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