Lucas House

Lucas House. . , The "Lucas House" was built by the US Navy in 1917 in Chickaloon. Until about 1922 it served as an officer's quarters during the Navy's short period of coal production in Chickaloon. At that time, the downstairs was two rooms, a kitchen and living/dining room and the house was heated by subfloor heat from the Chickaloon power plant. The building was also equipped with plumbing. The sleeping space was upstairs, possibly dormitory style. After the Chickaloon mine closed down, the Lucas House, like many other frame structures from the Chickaloon town site, was auctioned off as the Alaska Railroad began to close the Chickaloon spur line. Oliver Jones, conductor for the Alaska Railroad, purchased it and had it hauled in four pieces to his homestead property in Palmer on the last train out of Chickaloon in 1928. In 1942 he sold his property and house, to Leo and Margaret Lucas. They changed some of the downstairs rooms and stairwell. The Lucas Family lived in this house until 1953. The Lucas Family donated the building to the Alpine Historical Society in 1989. The house was moved to its present site in four sections plus the roof, reassembled and restored in the summer of 1990., Both the Lucas House and the Chickaloon Bunkhouse are two of the oldest frame buildings in this area of Alaska.