Brown & Hawkins Store

Brown & Hawkins Store
Alaska Heritage Resources Survey
Location 205, 207 and 209 4th Avenue, Seward, Alaska
Coordinates 60°6′5″N 149°26′27″W / 60.10139°N 149.44083°W / 60.10139; -149.44083Coordinates: 60°6′5″N 149°26′27″W / 60.10139°N 149.44083°W / 60.10139; -149.44083
Area less than one acre
Built 1904
NRHP reference # 88000710[1]
AHRS # SEW-038
Added to NRHP June 23, 1988

Brown & Hawkins is a general store in Seward, Alaska. It was founded in 1904 to serve the town and those constructing of the Alaska Central Railroad, and has been the oldest continuously operating business in Seward.[2] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.[1][3] It was announced in 2013 that the owners were retiring without finding anyone to buy their business.[4]

Brown & Hawkins was a business venture between partners Charles E. Brown of Montreal, Quebec, Canada and T.W. Hawkins of Roanoke, Virginia. The two men met in Nome during the Gold Rush.[2] They first started business together in Valdez in 1900 before moving to Seward in 1903. Their business in Seward included a store and bank.[2]

The store building began as a one-story 12 by 24 feet (3.7 m × 7.3 m) frontier store with a low false front in 1903. It evolved through four periods of construction to add and modify additional structures.[3]

As of 2009 Brown & Hawkins was still owned by the Hawkins family, making it the oldest store in Alaska under the same ownership. The original Mosler safe and brass cash register were displayed in the store.[2]

Brown (left) and Hawkins (right), 1911.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Brown and Hawkins Store". Seward Historic Preservation Commission. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2009.
  3. 1 2 Virginia H. Darling (April 13, 1988). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Brown & Hawkins Store / Brown & Hawkins Store Corporation / AHRS Site No. SEW-038". National Park Service. Retrieved July 26, 2017. With 21 photos, historic and from 1988.
  4. ↑ Zemach, Heidi. "Brown & Hawkins Closing". August 12, 2013. Seward City News. Retrieved 2 September 2013.


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