Ceremonial opening held for Girdwood’s newest museum the Roundhouse at Alyeska

Ken Smith/Turnagain Times Visitors look at the three dimensional map of Glacier Valley and surrounding area. The map is at the center of the new Roundhouse at Alyeska Museum, which had an open house Dec. 23. The Grand Opening is scheduled for 2008 during Spring Carnival.

Ken Smith/Turnagain Times Penny the reindeer got a tram ride to the top of the mountain. Visitors to the Roundhouse at Alyeska Museum were photographed with Santa and Penny. The reindeer lives at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

By Ken Smith
Turnagain Times

Some ten years ago, former Vice President of Alyeska Resort Chris von Imhof and a group of local Girdwoodians conceived of a museum to occupy the old Roundhouse building at the top of Mt. Alyeska. It would be a museum focusing on Girdwood Valley and the history of skiing in the area. Their dream and the dream of many other hard working community members was realized Dec. 23 when the Roundhouse at Alyeska opened its doors for the first time.
Alyeska Resort provided visitors a free ride on the Tram to the top of the mountain to tour Girdwood’s newest museum. From 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. a continuous flow of visitors strolled through the doors of a most unique museum that may be situated at one of the highest elevations in North America.
“We are very pleased to finally show this off to Girdwood,” said Lana Johnson vice President of Girdwood Inc., the non-profit organization behind the restoration of the museum. “This all started with community input. We tried to translate some of the community’s vision with the exhibitions here.”
The Roundhouse at Alyeska Museum is a small circular building that was originally used in the early 60’s as a lodge for skiers to warm up. It eventually developed into a gathering place for eating and drinking.
Paul Crews, a local ski coach and long-time resident of Girdwood, was at the open house. He recalled the early days of Alyeska and the Roundhouse.
“It took 25 minutes to get to the top on Chair 1,” he said, “and by the end of it, your butt was frozen to the seat.”
Inside the museum various narrative displays offer a glimpse of Girdwood’s past: the gold mining era, the natural heritage of the area and its unique ecological make-up as a transition zone from a temperate rainforest to an alpine environment, and of course the history of skiing at Alyeska, as well as the Roundhouse itself.
A display dedicated to the Roundhouse states:
“The Roundhouse was more than shelter from the cold, it was the social hub of Alyeska’s community. Eddie Gendzwill refurbished the Roundhouse in 1974 and added the highly popular Sky Ride Restaurant. Public use all but ended when the Alyeska Tramway and Glacier Terminal opened in 1992, and the facility became the on-mountain headquarters for the ski patrol.”
As visitors enter the Roundhouse, they are greeted by an impressive large three-dimensional map of Girdwood Valley and the surrounding area. And as one walks around the museum, a diverse array of historical artifacts and ski paraphernalia are on display, such as the bib worn by Juneau born Hilary Lindh, who captured an Olympic silver medal in the downhill in 1992, and a dog sled used by Nina von Imhof and her friend Clair Conrad during the 1970’s.
As was also suggested by members of the community, interactive videos documenting the history of skiing at Alyeska and avalanche mitigation videos can be viewed on flat panel TV’s mounted on the wall. In addition, large historical black and white photos line the walls of the museum documenting the history of skiing and the local gold mining that took place at the end of the 19th century. Cynthia Toohey, a long-time Girdwood resident and owner of the Crow Creek Mine, donated an entire display of gold rush era.
The cost to reconstruct the Roundhouse was around $2 million. The museum itself took four years to build from the initial concept to completed construction. It was a collaboration of many firms including Pacific Studios in Seattle, which specializes in museum exhibits and built and installed the exhibit cases. The designer of the exhibits was handled by Aldrich Pears Associate, a planning and designing firm based in British Columbia, and Rim Architects of Anchorage supervised the reconstruction of the museum, which had to adhere to strict guidelines due to the historical value of the building.
“It’s on the historic register,” said Johnson. “So you need to maintain all of its design, but we replaced windows and wood. We had to get a special exemption to do that.”
The museum will officially open to the public during spring carnival at Alyeska during the last week of April. There will be a nominal fee of only 50 cents to visit it in the summer and 25 cents in the winter. The resort intends to add a small surcharge for riding the tram and that money will be used to cover much of the operating costs of the museum.
The top of the mountain ski patrol headquarters, which was occupying the top floor where the museum is now located, was moved to the newly renovated bottom floor of the Roundhouse.
“Girdwood Inc. paid for all the renovations, and the ski patrol is occupying it in exchange for all the maintenance of the building and operating costs,” said Diana Stone Livingston, Treasurer of Girdwood Inc. “So our only operating cost is going to be for staffing. We’ll have a full-time executive director and a couple of part-time staff in the summer.”
In addition, the museum is seeking more displays—a likely long-term quest to gather historical pieces of Glacier Valley’s past. And to handle questions about the outdoors and ecological make up of the local area, a full-time interpreter for the Forest Service will work at the museum.