St Matthew's Episcopal
Church
St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, located on First
Avenue, was built in 1905.
The church was built along with a new hospital--the first in Fairbanks--which began
to admit patients in 1904.
Archdeacon Hudson Stuck held the first services in 1905. It was Archdeacon Hudson Stuck who later started Fairbanks' first library (St.
Matthew's Reading Room) in the back of the church (the Archdeacon was also the first
person to climb Mt. McKinley successfully).
The library served as an alternative to the
saloons, offering the miners magazines, newspapers and over 1500 books. In 1909, a new
library was built, the Thomas Memorial Library.
When the church burned in 1947, it was replaced with the current simple, log
building patterned after the original, but slightly larger. It
is located on First Avenue between Kellum and Wickersham Avenues. The church office is
staffed from 9 to 4 weekdays.
Today, St. Matthew's is also the owner of the historic Kellum house
just east of the church.
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