Rainey-Skarland Cabin

Rainey's Cabin
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Alaska Heritage Resources Survey
Location	University of Alaska Fairbanks campus, College, Alaska
Coordinates	64°51′32″N 147°49′54″W
Area	0.1 acres (0.040 ha)
Built	1936 (1936)
Built by	T.S. Batchelder; Froelich Rainey
Architectural style	log cabin
NRHP reference No.	75002158
AHRS No.	FAI-084
Added to NRHP	November 20, 1975

Rainey's Cabin, also known as Skarland's Cabin and Ivar's Cabin, is a historic log cabin on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in College, Alaska. It is a single-story three-room log structure, with a massive stone fireplace on one gable end.

History

The cabin was built on a ridge overlooking the school in 1936 for Froelich Rainey, the first professor of the university's Anthropology Department. During his tenure the cabin played a significant role as a social center of the university, hosting a number of pioneering archaeologists and anthropologists, including J. Louis Giddings and Frederica de Laguna. When Rainey left in 1942 the university bought the cabin to use as faculty housing.

Beginning in the late 1940s it was occupied by a successor as department chairman, former student Ivar Skarland, who continued Rainey's social practices.

Upon Skarland sudden death in in 1965 university students requested the cabin, ski trails and a residence hall be named in his memory, resulting in the Rainey-Skarland Cabin. Today a permanent or visiting anthropology faculty member or student lives in the cabin.

The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. A major 1982 renovation was highlighted by roof replacement, insulation, and installation of an alarm system.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska