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The 49th Estate is our answer to MTV's "Cribs," a weekly tour of Alaska homes and interviews with their owners.
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Educator Dagmar Phillips and her husband, history professor Stephen Haycox, can boast something to which few homeowners can make claim: They have a house inside their house.
Well, that's not entirely true. But the Haycox-Phillips house is built around a 1939 cabin, and the original walls and roof can be seen inside the house, dividing the couple's updated kitchen from their expanded living room. Phillips and Haycox worked with an architect friend to design an addition that would incorporate the original structure, let in lots and lots of light, and show off the gardens surrounding the house. Haycox did the work himself, with assistance from some friends. In the summer Phillips cultivates a garden oasis in what Haycox says is a weather "hot spot" not far from the Delaney Park Strip.
Phillips and Haycox, who enjoy talking about their home's history (they can name every prior owner), have filled the expanded house with art and furniture accumulated over their respective lifetimes. Phillips began collecting art and furniture as a young woman, and she and Haycox have an extensive collection of art from around the world, including many works by Alaska artists. They have so much art (inside the house and in the yard, too), in fact, that Phillips says they have to think long and hard before adding anything new.
"I don't want this house to be a museum," she says.
If you have an interesting Alaska home you'd like to see featured as a 49th Estate, contact Maia Nolan at maia(at)alaskadispatch.com.