Another old Illinois Street building bites the dust

Up until last summer this building stood at 270 Illinois Street. It was one of the buildings occupied by OK Lumber, which went out of business several years ago. The Alaska Railroad Corporation, which owns the land, decided the property would be more attractive to prospective tenants without buildings, so it had this one and several others torn down.

It’s such a shame. I thought this building, built in the mid 1950s, was a nice example of Art Deco-influenced industrial design. With the high ceilings and plethora of windows it would have made a fabulous sculptor’s studio or perhaps foundry.

The building had some history too. As far as I can tell it was used by the Alaska Department of Transportation as a maintenance facility. Old maps show the Alaska Road Commission (which operated between 1905 and 1960) as the property’s owner.