Sepia Saturday #285: Joyce Sigford, The Baronof Hotel and Juneau, Alaska

Ah, what a great theme this week.  I dinna have much in the way of postcards, but my offering this week is a 1940s photograph of the Baronof Hotel in Juneau, Alaska.  As Sepian readers, you might remember that last week, I posted photos of my twin aunts as business women of the 1940s.  This is not a follow up, but somewhat of a pre-quel. 

Baronof Hotel, Juneau, Alaska, circa 1938
Courtesty of  the Archives of  Roots'n'Leaves and  JGHill
(also from the personal albumn of Joyce Sigford Williams)

Juneau, Alaska, circa 1938
Courtesty of  the Archives of  Roots'n'Leaves and  JGHill
(also from the personal albumn of Joyce Sigford Williams)

The photograph at the right is the
Baronof Hotel in Juneau, Alaska, as it must have appeared to my Aunt Joyce Sigford when she arrived some time in 1938 or 1939.  At that time, it was a very "posh" place according to my aunt, and it had all of the amenities that one would expect in Seattle, or San Francisco, Chicago or New York.  I am not sure how Joyce knew about hotels in New York or Chicago because I don't think she was ever in either of those cities. In the late 1930s Alaska was, as now, a booming place, though at that time the boom came from the perceived war threat from Japan and the defensive preparations.


As you can see in the photograph to the left, Juneau rather clung to the side of the mountain.  The Baronof Hotel was  nestled against the mountains and almost in a direct line from the nearly right-angle of the bay waterfront.

The Baronof Hotel of the 1930s and 40s was an elegant hotel and played to the Russian-American heritage of the area.  The hotel was named after Alexander Andreyevitch Baronof (Baronov) who was the first governor of Russian-Alaska and the first Manager of the Russian-American Co. (a fur trading company) from 1799 to 1818.  Baronof Island, also known as Baronov Island, Shee (by the Native Tlinglit people), or Sitka Island, was also named after him.  Whether for the history, the elegance or the adventure, Joyce loved the Baronof Hotel -- and Alaska.  To hear my aunt speak of the Baronof Hotel and it's namesake there was an aura of royalty that was imbued into my memory. I also remember a large painting or print  of the hotel that hung in a place of honor in her dining room --  I don't remember what happened to it after she died.

To me, on of the more interesting elements of her sojourn in Alaska was what motivated her to pack her bag, get aboard a ship and travel to far away Alaska, alone and without nearby family.  Although the time has long past when I could sit down and ask her these questions, she did leave an interesting album of photographs of her time in Juneau and at the Baronof.

She left the lower 48 to head for Alaska and the Baronof Hotel sometime between 1937 and l938.
She was not much over 30 years old at the time.  The photograph below is how she looked as she sailed away.  My guess is that the following two photos were taken by her sister Loise, or perhaps her brother Clemmon.

Joyce Sigford standing at
the ship railing
Courtesty of  the Archives of  Roots'n'Leaves and  JGHill
(also from the personal albumn of Joyce Sigford Williams)

I always thought she looked a bit pensive in this photograph to the left .  However, she was the well dressed young woman of the day (although, she does seem to be missing her gloves -- she and Loise always wore gloves as young women), as she stood at the ships railing, and getting ready to leave all that was familiar behind her.

Joyce Sigford, smiling and ready for
her adventure in Alaska
Courtesty of  the Archives of  Roots'n'Leaves and  JGHill
(also from the personal albumn of Joyce Sigford Williams)

I have always liked the photo to the right and how Joyce was smiling.  She looked so excited about her new adventure -- and an adventure it was.   Women  raised in rural Klamath County, Oregon, weren't expected to go off on an adventure such as this  -- Going to Alaska!  By yourself!  Goodness sakes, what will people think!  I can hear my grandmother muttering those words.  On the other hand, my grandmother yearned for adventure, but never was afforded her dreams.

Courtesty of  the Archives of  Roots'n'Leaves and  JGHill
(also from the personal albumn of Joyce Sigford Williams)

 

And in Alaska, Joyce met the love of her life, John Harold (Hal) Williams.  Here they are standing on the moorage catwalk next to Hal's  boat which was the source of many of their activities.  I never thought of Aunt Joyce as an outdoors-kind of gal, but during her years in Alaska, she fished, boated, and hiked  -- and apparently loved every minute of her stay in Juneau.

Joyce and Hal in a photo labeled as "March 22, 1940"

A Very Stylish for Catching a Big Fish
Courtesty of  the Archives of  Roots'n'Leaves and  JGHill
(also from the personal albumn of Joyce Sigford Williams)

Joyce in an Alaskan Winter Wonderland
Courtesty of  the Archives of  Roots'n'Leaves and  JGHill
(also from the personal albumn of Joyce Sigford Williams)

Joyce and Hal on their Boat In Alaskan Waters
Courtesty of  the Archives of  Roots'n'Leaves and  JGHill
(also from the personal albumn of Joyce Sigford Williams)

Joyce and Hal Fishing from Their Boat
Courtesty of  the Archives of  Roots'n'Leaves and  JGHill
(also from the personal albumn of Joyce Sigford Williams)

Joby (as she was called in the family) communing with a critter
Courtesty of  the Archives of  Roots'n'Leaves and  JGHill
(also from the personal albumn of Joyce Sigford Williams)

Hal and Joyce, circa 1943

The photograph to the left is one of the few undated and/or without Joyce's annotation.  My guess it was taken just before she left Juneau for Stateside.  Alaska was preparing for the worst scenario  with the Japan's aggressiveness of the late 1930s.   On June 3, 1942, six months after bombing Pearl harbor, the Japanese bombed Dutch Harbor in the Aluetians.  Many of the Aluets were evacuated to Southeast Alaska and  Hal hurried his wife back to Seattle, safety and to be with her parents (who lived on a small farm south of Seattle).   This ended the Alaska adventure of my Aunt Joyce.

A year later, the Japanese invaders of the Aluetian Islands were pushed back, even though the war in the South Pacific went on for another two years.  Hal remained in Alaska during those war years, but after the war he joined his wife on a berry farm they had purchased near the little town of Puyallup, about nine miles south of Tacoma.  They lived on this idyllic little farm on the Puyallup River for nearly forty years.  Hal died in 1980, and Joyce remained on the farm until about 1990, when she and her sister Loise moved into a retirement village.  Joyce died 2 July 1993.

A few years later,  when we moved my Aunt Loise to Oregon to be closer to family, I rescued Joyce's suede-covered Alaska Photo Album from the trash pile and have ever since kept and shared her record of her grand adventure.

Now march on over to see the buildings, architecture, postcards, and such offered up by fellow Sepians.

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 © Joan G. Hill, Roots'n'Leaves Publications