- 1913

First Alaska Territorial House of Representatives, March, 1913, Elks Hall – Juneau. Alaska State Library, ASL Portraits of the Members of the First Alaska Territorial Legislature, 1913, P461-26.

The first Territorial Legislature met in Juneau at the Elks Club building starting February 24. Its first order of business was to pass a bill to give women the right to vote. It adjourned 61 days later on May 2.  On New Years Day Governor and Mrs. Walter Clark hosted an open house to dedicate the new Governor’s Mansion. The governor’s tenure was unique, being the chief executive in both the District and Territory of Alaska.

Juneau built a new city hall on Main Street, which also housed the fire department and temporary classrooms for the high school. Juneau City Council enacted a 12-mph speed limit to slow down the proliferating number of cars on city streets. It also passed a street naming and building numbering ordinance. A proposal to fill and reclaim tidelands for a park and recreation area in front of the Áak’w K’waan village area was presented to village property owners but they rejected it as usurping their rights. Juneau’s first subdivision, the Casey-Shattuck addition, located along lower Gold Creek, put up 200 lots for sale.

Juneau Cold Storage plant was built, with the city providing an ice machine and the dock area to be leased to the company. A new road was built to Sheep Creek, replacing what was little more than a trail.

The Alaska Gastineau Mining Co. begun construction of the Salmon Creek dam and power plants to furnish all-year hydroelectric power to its mining operations at Perseverance.  By the end of the year, the incomplete project was providing power while still under construction. It was completed by 1915 with two hydro plants furnishing 6,000 hp total.