(Anchorage, AK) – State Historic Preservation Officer Judy Bittner welcomes the announcement that the Campbell House, an original Matanuska Colony farmhouse built in 1935, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The farmhouse, located south of Palmer on Inner Springer Loop Road, is a rare example of an intact frame-built home from the colony period that still has historical and physical integrity. It joins more than 15 other Colony properties already listed on the Register, according to Bittner.
The house gets its name from George and Onabelle Campbell of Michigan, who drew Lot 54 in the lottery held for colonists to receive farm sites. The Campbells moved into the house in 1935 but left the project that first winter. In 1938, William and Lulubelle Bouwens and eight of their 11 children moved to the farm after a fire destroyed their house on Lot 53. They kept cows, chickens, pigs, geese, sheep and turkeys, and had a big vegetable garden. They sold produce and eggs – the log chicken coop still stands behind the house.
The Bouwens family recently sold the Campbell House to Darrin and Sheri Hamming. Using the historic preservation tax credit program, the couple rehabilitated the house for use as a bed and breakfast.
The Campbell House was added to the National Register – the nation's catalog of more than 85,000 historic properties worthy of preservation – on April 3.
For information about listing an Alaska property in the National Register, please contact the Office of History and Archaeology by calling 907-269-8721. The office address is 550 West 7th Ave., Suite 1310, Anchorage, Alaska 99501-3565.
DNR press release