Patten Colony Farm – Palmer AK

Description

The Patten Colony Farm is a historic structure representative of the farmsteads associated with the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation’s Matanuska Colony project, established with help of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The complex includes a log house, two log and frame barns, a chicken coop, an outhouse, and another outbuilding.

A registration form of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) describes the log house: “The one-and-one-half story log house was built by a colony construction crew and has an “L” shaped floor plan. A green house was added on the southeast corner around 1972. The main roof ridge runs north-south and creates a parallel orientation with the main facade. Asphalt rolled roofing covers the gable roof of the house. Originally built on a concrete foundation, a rarity among colony structures, the wall logs have been sided by hand, have lapped corner notches, and are chinked with concrete. A rear frame addition was built on the house in 1936 when the water well was dug. The Pattens used this instead of the typical, detached colony well house. This addition also has a foundation. It is faced with split logs applied vertically. Drop siding sheaths the original house gables, and horizontal planks have been used in the gable of the addition. Most of the windows are the typical double-hung, 6/6, with plain wide frames. Each gable has a fixed-pane window.

A short distance west of the house is the outhouse built in 1935. The outhouse is constructed of three-sided logs which are square notched at the corners. The outhouse roof is covered with metal sheets. Nearby is another colony building, a small chicken brood house.”