Building Location:
306 Steele Street
Whitehorse, YT
Location Context:
It was located next to the T.C. Richards Building on Steele Street
Description:
One-storey Frame Residence
Architectural History:
The building was a one-storey frame house with hip roof. The exterior was a stucco finish and the roof was covered in a cedar shingles.
The only additions were a front porch which had a hip roof and a rear kitchen-bedroom.
Cultural History:
This house originally stood on Front Street behind the Whitehorse Hotel (near the corner of Main) when it was first built in 1901. The next year, it was moved by its owner E.A. Dixon from a site behind the White Horse Hotel to 306 Steele Street, where it sat until April 1979. Occupants of the house include Jack Elliot, a White Pass engineer, Allan Fraser, a purser and chief ticket agent for White Pass, Kenneth Briggs, also a White Pass purser, and Mr. Brown, a local customs man. In 1979 it was moved by the City to a storage location in Rotary Park under a YTG heritage building relocation grant.
The grant stipulated that the house was to be moved to a permanent location, that it would not to be sold, and that the original structure and façade would not be altered significantly. However, the building suffered some stress in the move to the park, and after deteriorating and falling prey to shelter-seeking individuals, the house either burned, or was demolished.
Biographical Information:
E.A. Dixon: a NWMP officer; piloted boats through the White Horse rapids, made a substantial amount of money. He began Whitehorse Steam Laundry in 1900 with Cariste Racine; received title to waterfront property even though no private ownership of the waterfront was permitted; built the Regina Hotel with Charlie Johnson in 1900.
- 1915 elected to Territorial council; left Yukon in 1916.
- His ashes were scattered over Miles Canyon after his death in 1955.
Jack Elliott: lived in the house with his family for only a short period of time; engineer on the steamboats for White Pass. Owned the Yukon Ivory shop where he sold Mastodon tusk jewellery