Renovation lands Campbell House on National Register

PALMER — Sheri Hamming loves everything about Palmer — its people, its atmosphere and its history.

Especially the city’s history.

As president of the Palmer Historical Society, Hamming is active in the society’s efforts to preserve and promote Palmer’s heritage. Along with her contractor husband, Darrin, she’s also showing that a little love, elbow grease and vision can go a long way toward making sure future generations of Palmerites remember where they came from.

“I love history and I love Palmer history,” Sheri said while walking through the recently restored Campbell House. She and Darrin purchased the historic home in 2011, which was built in 1935 for the first of the Matanuska Colonists to settle the area. And after a year of restoration and renovation, the old home is not only a cozy vacation rental, its attention to historic detail has landed the home on the National Register of Historic Places — the 16th Colony property to make the register.

“When I walked in here at first, and thought, ‘Wow, you know, we could probably do something with this,’” Sheri said. “We saw the potential and I felt like I couldn’t let it go. We love Colony houses, and with (Darrin) being a contractor, I came up with a lot of ideas and he could do them.”

The renovation took a year to complete, and it was a challenging job even for an experienced contractor, Darrin said.

“The roof was caved in, the floors were sagged all in,” he said. “We’ve owned some old houses Outside in the past, but never did a (historic) project.”

How many hours did the Hammings put in over that year?

“Fortunately, I didn’t keep track,” Darrin quipped, adding that while the house is fully restored, there’s still more work that needs to be done around the property. Specifically, the chicken coop and the home’s original outhouse will be brought back (the outhouse just for aesthetic purposes — the renovation included adding a large new bathroom.

The Campbell House is historic to Palmer’s Colony days — it’s named for George and Onabell Campbell of Michigan, who first occupied the home in 1935. They drew Lot 54 in the Matanuska Colony Project — located a little less than a mile from the Glenn Highway on Inner Springer Loop — but left after one winter. William and Lulubelle Bouwens and eight of their 11 children moved to the farm in 1938 after fire destroyed their house on Lot 53. The house remained in the Bouwens family until Darrin and Sheri Hamming bought it.

“We went back and forth, and every step of the way where we tore it down some more we weren’t sure we could bring it back,” Sheri said. “But we could see the end of the tunnel.”

Although close attention was paid to make sure the house retained its rustic feel — Darrin hand-crafted a copy of the original front door, the original staircase and newel post were preserved, along with much of the hardwood flooring — the new Campbell House also now has a few amenities the Cambells wouldn’t have imagined in 1935.

The indoor bathroom boasts a large, wheelchair accessible shower and has modern plumbing (albeit with replica fixtures atop a restored antique vanity); a full modern kitchen has been built; and a 40-inch flat-screen television helps people wind down in the living room.

“We hid the fridge in here so it didn’t look so totally modern in keeping with the age and theme of the home,” Sheri said, pointing out a pair of rustic cabinet doors that hides the refrigerator. “We added this nice shower, we have the restored furniture we did before we got married.”

The antique dressing table that now holds a glass bowl sink and serves as the bathroom vanity is a well-loved piece of furniture, Sheri said.

“We found that 30 years ago and it had always been my dressing table until we got this house,” she said.

Another thing original to the house is closet space — there is none.

“There were not closets then or now,” Sheri said, adding all the furnishings were chosen to highlight the feel of the period, along with a smattering of Alaskana books placed around the house. “I shopped around for all this; like, this came from a thrift store in Palmer and this came from Chickadees in Palmer.”

It is gratifying, Sheri said, that their efforts have landed the house a place on the National Registry of Historic Places.

“That was super exciting,” she said. “That they actually said you have something here, and that’s cool. We had a lot of help along the way and there was a lot of paperwork to do.”

Now that work and local history is being shared, as the couple rents the Campbell House as a vacation home. They’ve also constructed some other period-type rentals on the property.

“It’s a nice history to be able to share, and even in Palmer people don’t know the history of the Colony anymore,” Sheri said. “I share it all the time.”

Contact reporter Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.