Reviving Auke Bay.

• Author: SCHMITZ, RICHARD F.
• Position: Brief Article

New businesses are adding life to this once-deserted community.

Growing up in Juneau, Tish Griffin remembers Horton's Hardware as a store that doubled as a time machine.

"It seems like you could walk around and find things from the 1960s. I was always overwhelmed by how much stuff you could find in Horton's. It was not your traditional True Value," said Griffin.

Horton's closed years ago. Until very recently the nondescript building with the incredible view of Juneau's Auke Bay Harbor was left derelict as commuters, ferry travelers, and increasingly, students at the University of Alaska Southeast passed by on their way to their homes "out the road," the ferry terminal or to nearby student housing.

Long before Gold Miners Joe Juneau and Richard Harris put down roots in what is now downtown Juneau, staking the first gold claim in Juneau in 1881, Auke Bay-12 miles to the north-was home to the local Tlingit people.

By the 1990s Auke Bay was little more than a corner of Alaska's capital city-there was the University of Alaska Southeast campus on the hill and the Auke Bay harbor below it. There was a post office. And there were a couple of churches, some apartments and homes and two businesses: DeHart's, a gas station, convenience store and liquor store; and Fisherman's Bend, a gas station, convenience store and tackle shop.

A major motion picture turned out to be something of a boon for Auke Bay. In 1998 director John Sayles came to Juneau to make the film "Limbo," and rented the vacant Horton's building for a production headquarters.

"Horton's was left all cleaned up and hard-wired," said Griffin, director of student activities for UAS. "We had wanted to get the university a place on the main highway. So it was the perfect place for a student activity center."

Since UAS opened the activity center in 1999, Auke Bay has seen a small surge in business activity. Chan's Chinese Kitchen opened in a building next door and became popular across Juneau for its authentic Thai cuisine. Upstairs, the Auke Bay Inn...