Carl Ben Eielson, Alaska Aviation Pioneer

Dateline: April 24, 2023

The Dream

Saturday, May 31, 1930, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (Fairbanks, Alaska)

    The Eielson Memorial Building of Aeronautical Engineering will rise on the Alaska College campus west of the present administration building and south of the girls' dormitory.

    This was decided yesterday by the Eielson memorial committee of Dorman H. Baker Post No. 11, American Legion; and the board of trustees of the Alaska College. The group met at the College at 3 p.m. Friday to select the best location and unaimously agreed on the spot chosen.

    Commander Ralph R. Reeser of the local Post, under whose direction funds for the building will be raised, has already appointed several members of an advisory committee and other appointments will be made in the near future. Among those already named are O. B. Burtness, Representative in Congress from Eielson's district in North Dakota; Governor George A. Parks; Colonel O. F. Ohlson, general manager of the Alaska Railroad; A. J. Dimond, Valdez attorney; A. Polet, Nome business man; K. L. Steberg, president of the Bank of Petersburg and agent for the Standard Oil Company at Ketchikan.

    In accepting the appointment Governor Parks wired, "Believe your plan will provide worthy memorial to Ben and I shall be glad to act on your committee." Colonel Ohlson said, "Appreciate appointment as member advisory committee and gladly accept." Congressman Burtness wired, "Glad to accept."

Board Approves

    Im expressing approval of the action looking to the construction of the memorial building the board of trustees of the Alaska College wrote Commander Reeser as follows:

    "Replying to your letter of May 28, the Board of Trustees of the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines not only desires to express its approval but also wishes to congratulate the Post for electing to engage upon so worthy a service. You may at all times know that you will have the full cooperation of the Board of Trustees.

    "Such a building when completed will be a splendid memorial to Colonel Eielson. To perpetuate his memory by providing a suitable building for service to College students and featuring aeronautical engineering seems to the Board of Trustees most appropriate and calculated to be most permanent.

    "The Board of Trustees will, when your labors are completed, be pleased to accept the memorial as a unit of the building program, and join with Dorman H. Baker Post.No.. 11, the American Legion, in dedicating it to the service of higher education in this institution as a living memorial to our distinguished citizen, Colonel Benjamin Eielson."

Resolution

    The following resolution was adopted by the board:

    "Resolved, that whereas representatives of fourteen fraternal and civic organizations in the Town of Fairbanks appointed for the purpose of deciding upon a suitable memorial to Colonel Carl Benjamin Eielson did by their unanimous vote selected a project to construct a building to be known as the Colonel Carl Benjamin Eielson memorial aeronautical engineering building of an estimated cost of one hundred thousand dollars and to be located on the campus of the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, and

    Whereas, the aforesaid representatives by resolution adopted requested Dorman H. Baker Post No. 11, the American Legion, to undertake the above memorial project and accomplish the same, and

    Whereas, Dorman H. Baker Post No. 11, the American Legion, hss agreed to accept the duties of such a worthy undertaking,

    NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, That the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines by its Board of Trustees hereby expresses its approval of the plan decided upon to honor the memory of Colonel Carl Benjamin Eielson and more particularly it tenders to Dorman H. Baker Post No. 11, the American Legion, its heary cooperation in all matters pertaining thereto, and thanks all who have interested themselves in this matter for the recognition given the Coltege, and hereby. pledges itself uoon the completion of said proposed building to accept the same for the purposes of higher education and as a part of its institution and that it shall always be known as the Colonel Carl Benjamin Eielson memorial aeronautical engineering building.

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The Reality

    The original plan for the Colonel Carl Benjamin Eielson Memorial Aeronautical Engineering Building called for a three-story concrete building, one of several planned identical concrete structures on campus to be decorated with a frieze of white quartz at the juncture of the first and second stories. Its aeronautical engineering facilities were to include a wind tunnel and labs to test atmospheric conditions.

Tuesday, April 3, 1934, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (Fairbanks, Alaska)

    Recently at a meeting of Dorman H. Baker Post of the American Legion it was decided to authorize President Bunnell of the Eielson Memorial Advisory Committee to proceed with plans for the Memorial building with the expectation of building the basement story this summer, the April issue of the Farthest-North Collegian, student publication at the Agricultural College and School of Mines says.

    A report from the Treasurer indicates that pledges in the sum of about $6,000.00 will be paid as soon as a call is made. Other pledges to the amount of $2,000.00 were conditioned upon the full amount being raised by public subscription. Even with this condition it is quite possible that the amount subscribed wil! be paid when actual construction work begins.

Estimates $18,000

    President Bunnell estimates that the basement room of the proposed Memorial can he built for $18,000.00. The structure as originally planned by Architect N. L. Troast, is to be two stories with basement story ten feet in the clear, 84 feet long, and 54 feet wide. The details of the basement call for poured reinforced concrete walls 10 inches thick, concrete floor, and concrete ceiling slab which will be the first story floor. The expense of pouring the walls for the next story will not be very heavy and President Bunnell is very hopeful that funds will be forthcoming so that at least the basement and first stories can be built this summer.

Plan Fireproof Building

    The Eielson Memorial Building will be the west wing of a general plan calling for all concrete fireproof buildings. In this plan the present gymnasium is directly north of the center of the main building. The plan is for a main administration building 54 feet by 84 feet three stories, extensions to each of these wings 54 by 84 feet and three stories.

May Delay Aeronautical Engineering

    The start thet is going to be made this summer will be of great service to the College. The chances are that acronautical engineering courses leading to the degree of Bachelor of Scence cannot be offered until the Eielson Memorial Building is completed. In the meantime all of it that can be constructed will help to relieve the present congestion in present quarters. Classrooms and laboratories are becoming too small. Then, too, it is highly advisable to move a large amount of non-reproducible museum material into fireproof quarters.

    The present plan is to set aside a small portion of this basement structure for permanent installation of a seismograph that is to be furnished by the Coast and Geodetic Survey. It is also thought that the college post office ought to be permanently established in fireproof quarters. The large aerodynamic laboratory 23 by 72 feet may be used temporarily for museum purposes.

Honor Pioneer Aviator

    The fact that building is going to start means that this memorial to Colonel Carl Ben Eieison, Alaska's pioneer aviator, will eventually be finished. The project was launched at a time when the full force of financial stress was creating havoc in our economic world. The delay has been unavoidable.

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    The University of Alaska website adds more detail:

    "The first floor of Eielson was completed in 1934 and covered with a temporary roof until it could be finished.
    "In 1935, Unit #5 was built just north of the original Eielson Building with a permanent concrete first floor and a temporary wood-frame structure on top. In the 1940s, the two buildings were joined using Unit #5's concrete first floor as the north end of the ground floor of Eielson. Neither building was altered much. They retained their temporary wooden roofs, and Unit #5 became known as the north end of Eielson.
    "In 1950, the wooden second and third stories of both buildings were taken down and contiguous concrete stories were added in their place. This finally made Eielson look like one building. The wooden top of Unit #5 was placed to the west of Eielson and used as its own structure until 1970. In 1987, an addition was built that linked the Eielson Building and Signers' Hall, and both the building and the hall were made accessible to the disabled."

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The Present

    The Eielson Building, at 1820 Salcha Street, is now home to the Graduate School and a number of other departments and offices. The photo, shot in 2019, is from Google Streetview.