{"id":12029,"date":"2012-08-15T08:30:27","date_gmt":"2012-08-15T11:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingatlantic.ca\/?p=12029"},"modified":"2013-01-21T04:45:51","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T08:45:51","slug":"dawson-city-big-city-problems-in-a-small-northern-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/atlantic\/2012\/08\/15\/dawson-city-big-city-problems-in-a-small-northern-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawson City \u2014 big city problems in a small northern town"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 <\/p>\n

Tim Falconer<\/a> is the author of three books, including Drive: A Road Trip through Our Complicated Affair with the Automobile. He recently spent three months in Dawson City as the writer-in-residence at Berton House. All photos by Tim. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n

This is not a love letter to Dawson City, though I certainly could have written one of those. After all, the Yukon town is totally charming: distinctive architecture, buildings that date from the Gold Rush of 1898 and wooden sidewalks alongside wide dirt streets\u2014and enough bar seats for every full-time resident (or so the legend goes).<\/p>\n

But I suppose we always want to change the people and places we adore, at least a little bit. As a naive urbanite, what surprised me during my three months in this Northern town of about 1,300 is that the problems I wish I could solve are ones I thought were blights only in big cities.<\/p>\n

Despite a severe and long-standing housing crisis, for example, NIMBYism and an irrational fear of increased density recently helped scuttle a proposal to build six small, but affordable homes. \"\"<\/p>\n

Unused\u2014or underused\u2014heritage buildings are another challenge. Several are owned by a private landowner who seems content to watch his real estate portfolio rot; alas, the town can\u2019t do much about that. Others, though, are the property of the federal government, which can be just as frustrating.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Parks Canada owns 26 sites in the Klondike and has faithfully restored most of them to serve as popular tourists attractions, offices or housing. But a few deserve \u201ccan do better\u201d on their report cards. Harrington\u2019s Store (above photo), for instance, displays a historical exhibit called \u201cDawson As They Saw It.\u201d Pleasant enough, I guess, but hardly the most productive activity given the prime centre-of-town location.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

I visited a few other landmarks during Doors Open Dawson in May. The 1901 post office, a turn-of-the-century jewel, is partially open to the public during summer tours but the Dawson Daily News building, which Parks has done some work on, remains closed, the printing press and other equipment shielded by sheets and tarps. Even more disheartening was the sight of Lowe\u2019s Mortuary and Billy Bigg\u2019s Blacksmith Shop (photo above); without the funds to do more, Parks Canada has been reduced to merely trying to keep these structures erect.<\/p>\n

In a small town that attracts\u2014and depends on\u201460,000 tourists a year, no one doubts the value of the Klondike\u2019s rich history, though that doesn\u2019t mean everyone agrees on how to preserve the past. And adaptive reuse (to wield the jargon for finding new purposes for old premises) can be controversial anywhere.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Saving ramshackle heritage stock may not always make the best cultural, environmental or economic sense, but Dawson boasts many high-profile examples of successful reincarnations. My favourite: in 1998, Wendy Cairns bought a derelict former brothel and moved it to a central street corner. Today, restored and expanded, Bombay Peggy\u2019s is an elegant Victorian inn with a popular bar (above).<\/p>\n

A block east of Peggy\u2019s is Billy Bigg\u2019s, which has a backstory that, ironically enough, offers an object lesson in how a building\u2019s function can change as the economy changes. Erected in 1899, it was originally the two-storey Great Northern Hotel. By 1907, the boomtown population had shriveled and hotel rooms were no longer in high demand, so it became a blacksmith\u2019s. Six years later, the addition of a machine shop allowed the business to serve the increasingly mechanized mining industry.<\/p>\n

Aside from the interpretative displays in the front windows, Billy Bigg\u2019s is now vacant and its already poor condition isn\u2019t exactly improving. But Greg Hakonson, a born and bred Dawsonite, thinks he could do something with it. His plan: restore the second floor, which has been gone since the 1940s; renovate the front into commercial space; create an apartment upstairs and part of the first floor; and install a studio or other workspace in the back of the ground level\u2014all while maintaining the historic look.<\/p>\n

He submitted a formal offer in the spring, a few weeks before the federal government announced massive layoffs at Parks Canada (as well as cuts such as the incomprehensible closure of Dredge #4, the most-visited tourist site in the Yukon). Hakonson admits he was willing to pay only \u201cnext to nothing\u201d for the property because it would mean assuming a liability that came with strict architectural handcuffs. Of course, he\u2019d also be taking a liability off the government\u2019s hands\u2014and ensuring the survival of a dilapidated heritage site. \u201cIf these buildings aren\u2019t generating revenue for somebody,\u201d he says, \u201cthey\u2019re never going to be maintained and looked after and insured.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the feds didn\u2019t see it that way and turned the deal down. Without new owners and new lives, though, the blacksmith shop and similar places are destined to go the way of the nearby Third Avenue Complex, the so-called \u201ckissing buildings\u201d that are tilting toward collapse because of melting permafrost (top photo). In this case, the decision to let them decay, and allow people to see a natural process, seems reasonable. But it makes no sense to do the same with additional treasures.<\/p>\n

In Dawson, fire is an even bigger threat than melting permafrost. \u201cAll these old buildings are wood, so they\u2019re going to burn down eventually. That\u2019s what happens,\u201d Hakonson says. \u201cSo you need someone with a vested interest in it\u2014maybe even a sprinkler system\u2014and has insurance on it. And really has a desire to look after it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Parks Canada has the desire, it doesn\u2019t have the money to do something meaningful with all of its Klondike holdings. So the government should let others do it. Done properly, injecting new spirit into tired structures enriches the future without diminishing the past. That\u2019s just as true in a small town as it is in a big city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Tim Falconer is the author of three books, including Drive: A Road Trip through Our Complicated Affair with the Automobile. He recently spent three months in Dawson City as the writer-in-residence at Berton House. All photos by Tim. This is not a love letter to Dawson City, though I certainly could have written oneContinue reading “Dawson City \u2014 big city problems in a small northern town”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5867],"tags":[847,5538,5542,5551,5549,5545,874,5548,5539,5550,336,5544,5540,5546,5547,5541,5543,5537,1145],"class_list":["post-12029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-author","tag-billy-bigg","tag-blacksmith","tag-dawson-city","tag-dawson-daily-news-building","tag-dilapidated-heritage-site","tag-federal-government","tag-great-northern-hotel","tag-greg-hakonson","tag-harringtons-store","tag-historical","tag-mechanized-mining-industry","tag-mortuary-bigg","tag-printing-press","tag-third-avenue-complex","tag-tim-falconer","tag-tourist-site","tag-wendy-cairns","tag-yukon"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDawson City \u2014 big city problems in a small northern town - Spacing Atlantic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/atlantic\/2012\/08\/15\/dawson-city-big-city-problems-in-a-small-northern-town\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dawson City \u2014 big city problems in a small northern town - Spacing Atlantic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Tim Falconer is the author of three books, including Drive: A Road Trip through Our Complicated Affair with the Automobile. 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