Palmer Sites

"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...

The Berry House is a farm house built in 1935 as part of the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation's Matanuska Colony project. Representative of the frame colony farm house typology, the Berry house retains most of its original features and it has been minimally altered since it was built. The structure is located on the original colony tract. A registration form of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) describes the characteristics of the structure: “The house is a one-and-one half story wood frame structure with a rectangular floor plan. It measures 30' 6" x 35' 6" with a 6' x 14'...

This 1935 Colony House was built as part of the New Deal resettlement program that brought colonists from Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin to Palmer Alaska in 1935. The building has recently been restored and accepted to the National Register of Historic Places. It is also the recent Recipient of the 2013 Alaska Association for Historic Preservation Award of Excellence.

The Herried House, also known as Grow House, was built by the Work Progress Administration. the house was originally part of a colony farm. The structure "is an example of a farm house associated with the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation project in the Matanuska Valley. The house is a one-and-one-half story log structure and has a rectangular floor plan. It measures 25'x 32'without the garage. The entry vestibule on the north side has a parallel orientation with the gable roof ridge. A concrete block chimney, a change at a later date, rises from the center of the roof. The small entry vestibule...

The Hyland Hotel, also known as the Everglenn Hotel, is a historic property, part of the Settlement and Economic Development of Alaska's Matanuska-Susitna Valley, and is nominated as a community center building within the New Deal Colony Settlement of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley in Alaska. The hotel was built on one of the main streets of Palmer, a city founded by the Federal Government for the for Matanuska Colony rural resettlement program. While the hotel was built by private individuals, the structure is associated with the New Deal because it was made possible by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration's Matanuska Colony initiative and the land it...

What is now the Palmer Alaska Historic District was founded in 1935 as the Matanuska Colony Project. It was one of 100 New Deal resettlement programs and involved major efforts by FERA and the Resettlement Administration. The town site of Palmer expanded rapidly with the relocation of 203 colonists from Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin in 1935 under the Relocation project.  Prior to that the area was composed of homesteads primarily. The Palmer Historical Society has a Colony House Museum that is a 'house' as it would have been in 1935-1945.  It is an original colony house moved into the historic...

The Palmer Depot is a historic train station built in 1935 to provide transportation to the Matanuska Valley Colony. The Alaska Railroad was the main means of transportation by which colonists arrived in the Matanuska Valley in 1935. A New Deal homesteading experiment, the Matanuska Valley Colony was established to foster economic growth and the development of agriculture in the new territory. Land plots in Matanuska Valley had been subdivided and open for homesteading starting with 1914. But the land was difficult to cultivate and economic growth between 1914 and 1935 turned out to be slower than expected. The land...

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...

The Puhl House is a historic farm associated with the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation's Matanuska Colony project, established with help of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Built in 1935, the complex includes a log house, a barn, and four sheds. While the structures were built by private individuals, the farmstead is associated with the New Deal because it was made possible by FERA’s Matanuska Colony initiative and the land it distributed to farmers. A registration form of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) describes the characteristics of the log house: “The house is a one-story log building. It is rectangular...

The Raymond Rebarchek Colony Farm is a historic farm associated with the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation’s Matanuska Colony project, established with help of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Built withe the help of the WPA between 1935 and 1937, the complex is located on the original 40 acres allotted to Mr. Rebarcheck when he drew tract # 52 from a hat in 1935. The plot consists of a 25-acre hayfield, 7 acres in pasture, one acre in natural vegetation, two acres of house and barn yard, and five acres of forest. While the construction of the house was started by...