Matanuska Colony Community Center
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Matanuska Colony Community Center
The Matanuska Colony Community Center, also Palmer Historic District, is a cluster of buildings near the center of Palmer, Alaska that were the centerpiece of the Depression-era Matanuska Valley Colony. This federal rural resettlement program was intended to give needy families resources and land to improve their condition. The colony's buildings were erected beginning in 1935, and those that survive represent a well-preserved example of government community planning. It is centered on a city block bounded by East Dahlia Avenue, South Valley Way, South Denali Street, and East Elmwood Avenue, and extends to the north and south. The buildings on this block are organized around a grassy quadrangle, laid out in 1935. Prominent buildings include the Palmer Depot and three churches, located in the block just southeast of the quadrangle, one of which, the United Protestant Church, is a distinctive log structure. The colony's Central School, now added to several times, houses the of ...
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Palmer, Alaska
Palmer (Ahtna: ''Nił'etse'it'aade'' or ''Nuutah''; Dena'ina: ''Denal'i Kena'') is a city in and the borough seat of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States, located northeast of Anchorage on the Glenn Highway in the Matanuska Valley. It is the ninth-largest city in Alaska, and forms part of the Anchorage Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city is 5,888, down from 5,937 in 2010. Palmer hosts the annual Alaska State Fair, and is also the headquarters of the National Tsunami Warning Center. History The first people to live in the Matanuska Valley, where Palmer is located, were the Dena'ina and Ahtna Athabaskans. They moved throughout the area, living a subsistence lifestyle and trading with other native groups. Their trade routes were along the Matanuska River. Russians came to Alaska in 1741 and brought the Russian Orthodox religious tradition to the indigenous peoples of the region. In the early 1890s, an entre ...
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David Williams (Alaska Architect)
David Williams was an American architect and community planner. He worked in the Washington, D.C. office of Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Early in his professional career he worked in Tampico, Mexico for Gulf Oil as a civil engineer. He designed a building for prefabrication that was widely used by Gulf and other oil companies. In 1935, he met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was "fascinated" with David's ideas. A number of his works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Works include: * Berry House, 5805 N. Farm Loop Rd., Palmer, Alaska (Williams, David), NRHP-listed *Bailey Colony Farm, 3150 N. Glenn Hwy., Palmer, Alaska (Williams, David), NRHP-listed * Herried House, 4400 N. Palmer-Fishook Hwy., Palmer, Alaska (Williams, David), NRHP-listed *Matanuska Colony Community Center, roughly bounded by S. Colony, E. Firewood, S. Eklutua, E. Elmwood, S. Denali and a line N of properties on E. Dahlia, Palmer, Alaska (Williams, David ...
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Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. It was set up on May 6, 1935, by presidential order, as a key part of the Second New Deal. The WPA's first appropriation in 1935 was $4.9 billion (about $15 per person in the U.S., around 6.7 percent of the 1935 GDP). Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA supplied paid jobs to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States, while building up the public infrastructure of the US, such as parks, schools, and roads. Most of the jobs were in construction, building more than 620,000 miles (1,000,000 km) of streets and over 10,000 bridges, in addition to many airports and much housing. The largest single project of the WPA was the Tennessee Valley Authority. At its pea ...
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Matanuska Valley Colony
In 1935, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration created an experimental farming community known as the Matanuska Valley Colony as part of the New Deal resettlement plan. Situated in the Matanuska Valley, about 45 miles northeast of Anchorage, Alaska, the colony was settled by 203 families from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The colony project cost about $5,000,000 and, after five years, over half of the original colonists had left the valley. By 1965, only 20 of the first families were still farming the valley. History The Matanuska Colony was part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal plan to help move the United States out of the Great Depression. It was one of many rural rehabilitation colonies to be established by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Others included Cherry Lake Farms in Florida, Dyess Colony in Arkansas, and the Pine Mountain Valley Rural Community in Georgia. In 1935, Americans in rural areas of northern states were among the worst ...
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Palmer Depot
The Palmer Depot is a historic train station at South Valley Way and Evergreen Avenue in Palmer, Alaska. It is a large three-section single story frame structure, built in 1935 to provide transportation services to the newly established Matanuska Valley Colony. The main section is the former warehouse, which is long. The next section, with a lower profile than the warehouse, housed baggage facilities, a passenger waiting area, and living quarters for the station agent. The third section, the smallest of the three, houses the former ticketing office. The building now houses a community center. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and was added as a contributing property to Matanuska Colony Community Center in 1991. See also *National Register of Historic Places listings in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska. This is intended to b ...
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United Protestant Church
A united church, also called a uniting church, is a church formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations. Historically, unions of Protestant churches were enforced by the state, usually in order to have a stricter control over the religious sphere of its people, but also other organizational reasons. As modern Christian ecumenism progresses, unions between various Protestant traditions are becoming more and more common, resulting in a growing number of united and uniting churches. Examples include the United Church of Canada (1925), the Church of North India (1970), the Uniting Church in Australia (1977), the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (2004), and the United Protestant Church of France (2013). Since the mid-20th century, and the rise of secularism worldwide, mainline Protestantism has shrunk. Among others, Reformed (Calvinist), Anglican, and Lutheran churches have merged, often creating large nation ...
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Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska
Matanuska-Susitna Borough (often referred to as the Mat-Su Borough) is a borough located in the U.S. state of Alaska. Its county seat is Palmer, and the largest community is the census-designated place of Knik-Fairview. The borough is part of the Anchorage Metropolitan Statistical Area, along with the municipality of Anchorage on its south. The Mat-Su Borough is so designated because it contains the entire Matanuska and Susitna Rivers. They empty into Cook Inlet, which is the southern border of the Mat-Su Borough. It is one of the few agricultural areas of Alaska. Geography The borough seat is Palmer, and the largest community is the census-designated place of Knik-Fairview, Alaska. As of the 2020 census, the population was 107,081, up from 88,995 in 2010. It is the fastest growing subdivision in Alaska. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of , of which is land and (2.6%) is water. Adjacent boroughs and census areas * Denali B ...
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National Register Of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic value". A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred in preserving the property. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) in 1966 established the National Register and the process for adding properties to it. Of the more than one and a half million properties on the National Register, 95,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts. For most of its history, the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service (NPS), an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior. Its goals are to help property owners a ...
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National Register Of Historic Places Listings In Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States. The locations of National Register properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in an online map. There are 30 properties and districts listed on the National Register in the borough. Current listings See also * List of National Historic Landmarks in Alaska The National Historic Landmarks in Alaska represent Alaska's history from its Russian heritage to its statehood. There are 50 National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) in the state. The United States National Historic Landmark program is operated under ... * National Register of Historic Places listings in Alaska References {{Matanuska-Susitna Borough, ...
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Buildings And Structures Completed In 1940
A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the term ''building'' compare the list of nonbuilding structures. Buildings serve several societal needs – primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical division of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) and the ''outside'' (a place that at times may be harsh and harmful). Ever since the first cave paintings, buildings have also become objects or canvasses of much art ...
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Buildings And Structures In Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska
A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the term ''building'' compare the list of nonbuilding structures. Buildings serve several societal needs – primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical division of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) and the ''outside'' (a place that at times may be harsh and harmful). Ever since the first cave paintings, buildings have also become objects or canvasses of much artist ...
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Historic Districts On The National Register Of Historic Places In Alaska
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of these events. Historians seek knowledge of the past using historical sources such as written documents, oral accounts, art and material artifacts, and ecological markers. History is not complete and still has debatable mysteries. History is also an academic discipline which uses narrative to describe, examine, question, and analyze past events, and investigate their patterns of cause and effect. Historians often debate which narrative best explains an event, as well as the significance of different causes and effects. Historians also debate the nature of history as an end in itself, as well as its usefulness to give perspective on the problems of the p ...
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