Historical group asks Juneau panel to back Telephone Hill historic district

Thirteen residential rental units inside Telephone Hill's seven remaining homes could be lost if the City and Borough of Juneau proceeds with its plan to demolish the buildings by the end of 2026. The Alaska Historical Association wants the homes recognized as a national historic district before that happens.

Juneau's Historic Resources Advisory Committee is scheduled to review the association's application to the National Register of Historic Places on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 5 p.m. at the Downtown Library. The association also drafted a resolution of support for the committee to consider. If the committee adopts it, the association would send it to the State Historic Preservation Office to add to the application. Under federal law, listing places no restrictions on what a non-federal owner may do with a property, "up to and including destruction," unless the project receives federal assistance, according to the National Park Service.

"We believe that there is an URGENT need for HRAC review of our application," Director Catherine Fritz wrote in a Sept. 28 letter to Acting Chair Dorene Lorenz.

The homes sit downtown between Willoughby Avenue, Main Street, Egan Drive and the Alaska State Office Building. They were built between 1882 and 1939. Fritz wrote that the 1882 house was Juneau's oldest continuously occupied home until it was vacated in March. All the homes are now empty and "highly vulnerable to damage," she wrote.

The CBJ Telephone Hill project page describes up to 155 housing units, including more than 30 subsidized for households earning 80% of area median income. The city's schedule anticipated site preparation in 2026 and construction in 2027. The Juneau Assembly approved $5.5 million for demolition and site preparation on May 5, 2025. At an Assembly Committee of the Whole session that day, the full Assembly sitting as a committee, Wade Bryson said of the tenants, "We have been telling them for at least 5 years, you're going to have to move." The city's project FAQ says bringing the buildings up to code would be a significant cost and "an inappropriate use of public funds."

Fritz has urged the Assembly to consider Concept D, which would keep the homes while allowing new development, according to August Assembly meeting records. "Regardless of whether or not the existing homes remain, it is urgently important to establish the neighborhood as a national Historic District," she wrote in the letter.

The committee packet contains the association's letter and draft resolution but no response from the city administration. The draft says the committee recognized in its 2025 annual report the importance of designating Telephone Hill a historic district and considered seeking grant money to prepare a nomination itself.