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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

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THIS WEEK'S HEADLINES

• Homer preps for swine flu

• Pebble’s progress necessarily slow

• A dozen candidates file for city, borough offices

• Mayor Carey warns of ‘brown-outs’

• FYI

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

• In a cave . . . in the rain

• Jewel Kilcher returns home

• test

SPORTS

• Voz Cougars dominate eight-man football field

• Homer turns out in pink to run for the cure

• Homer Halibut derby standings

FEATURE

• When pigs fly

• Ninilchik pair finds net mending a dying art

BUSINESS

YOUTH

• Youth get creative about climate change

Bomb shelter walls still talk

Building on Pioneer withstood Cold War fears, modern personifications

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

May 27, 2009

Bomb shelter walls still talk

Stanley and Nikki Welles stand outside their building at 265 Pioneer on Homer's main street before their historic home.

Stan Welles and his wife Nikki don’t feel the occasional earthquakes that rumble through Homer every now and then. Safely enclosed in a bomb shelter built nearly 60 years ago, the thick walls and 13-inch steel bridge girders hold 265 Pioneer Avenue in tight arms.
The building the Welles have called home the past 17 years continues to fascinate Stan’s technical mind. An aeronautical engineer, Welles inherited the legacy of longtime Homer resident Harry Feyer, as well as his preoccupation with being prepared during the Cold War with Russia.
“The steel columns go all the way up through the building,” Welles said, pointing out the solid steel I Beam girders that hold the building up. “It’s the darndest thing, like the steel they put in at the (Ohlson Mountain) Radar Station. I’m impressed by the design of it.”
While many old-timers may remember Harry and his hardware store on Pioneer, new generations haven’t experienced world circumstances that might compel a man to build such a fortress, insulate it against a dependence on fuel and store enough food to carry a community through a crisis.
The radar station itself was a Cold War construction, built for early warnings in case Alaska was attacked by a nuclear bomb. According to Welles’ understanding, Feyer’s building supplies were ordered along with the radar station’s, which is how he likely obtained the big steel girders.
Each of the three floors are 1,750 square feet, along with a sunroom that was later added on the back. The first floor, built partially into the earth for warmth and shelter, was equipped with 440 volt-three phase electricity to provide enough extra power to operate Harry’s freezers and machine shop and apparently a radio station as well. The water pipes and food storage were also located there, making it the safe spot in case Alaska became a Cold War target.
During the ‘50s, many believed Alaska would be the first place attacked. Bomb shelters were built in the basement of many public buildings, and students were taught to sit under their desks for safety during drills throughout territorial Alaska. The practice continued through the early statehood years.
“Harry was very community-minded,” Welles said. “This was a civil defense building.”
Interestingly enough, Harry was a Canadian citizen and a World War II veteran of the Canadian Air Force. Yet, he keenly felt an American patriotism.

The Feyers
A few years after Harry Feyer was discharged from the Canadian Air Force, he and his wife Dee moved to the United States. They moved to   Seldovia in 1948, where Harry worked nine months at the electrical plant, and then moved to Homer. From 1949 to 1952, Harry worked to build the three-story structure at 265 Pioneer.
“We moved to Homer to open a modest retail hardware business and join the Homer forces,” wrote Dee in the book, “Pioneers of Alaska.” “During the intervening years and the advent of electricity, we offered, in addition to many thousands of hardware items, refrigeration, electrical and machining services to satisfy most of Homer’s needs.”
The machining services brought Harry into contact with local fishing families around the Bay. Val McLay’s dad, Jake, sought out Harry to make new machine parts for his boat. Young Val, who started frequenting the shop as a kid in the ‘50s, recalls Harry as both personable with customers and very capable.
“I would draw him a rough draft set of plans on a piece of paper, and he could make it,” McLay said. “He was very good at his work.”
The building’s third floor leased space to the Alaska Territorial government in the ‘50s, and then to the Department of Fish and Game. Eventually, Betty Miller’s “Arctic House of Beauty,” and several others took their turn in the space.
During his years in Homer, Harry served as president of the Homer Fair Association, and the local Parent-Teacher Organization. He was a member of the Homer Chamber of Commerce, member of the Elks, and secretary/treasurer of the Homer Businessmen’s Association. He also acted as chairman of the Alaska Independence Party, and was president of the Homer Winter Carnival for five years.
Harry died in 1989, and Dee sold the building to the Koch family. She moved to a retirement community in Lacey, Wash.

The birth of ‘Pioneer Pizza’
In 1991, Welles’ son, Luke, moved to Homer with his wife, Laura.
“He came over Baycrest Hill, and decided this is where he wanted to be,” Stan said.
One of Luke’s ventures was running Pizza Nick’s, located in a portion of the building now known as the Alibi. While building a reputation for being a fine pizza-maker, Luke talked his parents into becoming his partners. And soon, Pizza Nick’s needed a home of its own.
“We knew we didn’t want to lease, we wanted to buy,” Stan explained. “We also needed residential space, because we planned on retiring here.”
The Welles purchased the building in 1992 from second-owner, John Koch. The Welles lived downstairs, opened the pizza parlor on street level, and operated a bed and breakfast on the third floor. Pioneer Pizza remained a Homer favorite until closing its doors in December of 2001.
Today, the building acts primarily as a residence for the Welles.
As the Welles worked on remodeling projects and changed the building’s uses over the years, they came face-to-face with Harry’s many pieces of craftsmanship. In 2005, the building was featured on a national cable show, “If These Walls Could Talk.”

Preserving Homer history
The Welles preserve the story of Harry’s farsightedness whenever they continue to amaze guests with his handiwork in the Pioneer Avenue building.
And while it acts as a historic piece of Homer history, it is also a testament to a specific and somewhat frightening time for many in Alaska history. Yet, it is also the Welles’ home, and a place where, on any given day Stan says he can easily bump into another sign of Harry’s ingenuity.
“I can still be surprised by him,” Welles said. “Just last week, one end of a cable dropped out of the ceiling. I don’t know if it was a part of one of Harry’s projects or associated with a radio station that was supposedly here at one time.”

HOMER TRIBUNE/Naomi Klouda

The Welles are at home among the many antiques they inherited from their ancestors. The stories behind certain pieces of furniture can fascinate visitors as much as the story of the building as an intricate bomb shelter.

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