Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic Church

The most notable building in the Hammon Consolidated power plant complex is Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic Church. Although serving the ignominious role of a gold-company warehouse and stripped of its steeple, Saint Joseph's remains the only church building from Nome's early history. Constructed in 1901, the 40-foot-by-60-foot church had an 88-foot steeple that supported a large, electrically lit cross serving as a beacon over the tundra and sea. This cross was deemed so important that the city paid the cost of illuminating it. Originally located at Steadman and King's Place, the building was moved to its present site in 1946 and oriented with its back to the street. The building's rear facade had a lower, gable-roofed sanctuary; this sanctuary was removed and warehouse-type doors were installed. On its original front, two round arches surmount the double-leaf doorway, and there is a rose window in the gable. The tower has been chopped off above the first story. The wood-framed building has novelty siding; corner pilasters and buttresses have been removed. When the Catholics built a new, smaller, more easily maintained church in 1946, the USSR&M Company acquired this one, a surprising choice for a warehouse.