Bailey Colony Farm – Palmer AK

Description

“The Bailey Colony Farm is a farmstead associated with the 1930s Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Project in the Matanuska Valley. Although the original forty-acre tract has been subdivided, the house and barn that were built in 1935 remain and, virtually unaltered, they are examples of the project’s architectural style. The barn is presently located approximately 150 feet from its original site. It was moved in the late 1940s when the Glenn Highway was widened. The move did not change the general spatial relationship between the house and barn, and the building’s current setting is very similar to the original. Ferber and Ruth Bailey and their two children were colonists from Lean, Wisconsin. Ferber Bailey, a carpenter, dug the basement and helped construct the house.”

“The house is frame construction, rectangular in plan, and measures 28′ x 32′. It is one-and-one half stories high. The gambrel roof and floor plan make the Bailey house unique among colony residents. Because of the roof design, the house was larger than most of the other colony farm houses. The ridge of the gambrel roof runs north-south and creates a parallel orientation with the main facade. A low deck is attached to the front, or west, facade of the house. The house sits on a concrete block foundation. Basements were not part of standard colony houses, but Ferber Bailey was one of the colonists who dug a basement.”