North Cushman Street parking lot in September 2003

It must have been quite a place in the early days of captain E.T. Barnette, gold miner Felix Pedro en judge James Wickersham. Not many historic buildings remain today in downtown Fairbanks. Fires and floods have left their traces, and obviously for many years the preservation of history was not on the city's mind. That may have changed now but all that is left from the early days are a few pioneer log cabins and the old Immaculate Conception Church. Plaques and markers, some in very odd places, tell stories of what used to be. Most of the modern downtown buildings were not build for their good looks and the general layout is rather haphazard.