Soapy Smith Parlor museum restoration, Martin Itjen bus, part 22

"Martin Itjen" (Douglas Smith) and NPS Ranger Kari Rain
with Skaguay Alaska Street Car

(Click image to enlarge)

estoration of Jeff Smith's Parlor continues through the summer months. It was advertised in Skagway and on the Facebook page for the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park that they would be bringing Martin Itjen's only remaining "street car" out of storage to parade it (very slowly) around town (May 16, 2013) for a good last look before it goes in for restoration. This may be the last time it is seen on the street before it is placed on permanent display next to the Parlor.
      Tour guide, Douglas Smith, went along with the "parade" portraying 'ole Martin Itjen himself. I would have loved to have been there but I was lucky enough to be a passenger in the "street car" in 1977 when George Rapuzzi drove my family in the July 4 parade.
      Numerous photographs were taken that day, and many can be seen on my Facebook page.
      Also, in this post, is the first look of the newly restored Parlor front. It is not to 1898 specifications as that front was changed in the early teens. What is seen today is the front as Martin Itjen made it. Note the "Jeff. Smith's Parlor." sign. There are two periods, one after "Jeff" and one after "Parlor." These are periods showing abbreviation. "Jeff." is the abbreviation for "Jefferson," and "Parlor." is the abbreviation for "Parlors," clearly indication Soapy had other parlors (saloons). One on-going problem I have is writing the name of his saloon properly. To do so, I have to write Jeff. Smith's Parlor. which certainly can confuse readers who see them as periods, stopping a sentence, rather than as periods, indicating abbreviations. I have decided to publish the name as "Jeff Smith's Parlor" to alleviate that possible confusion, even though it is not historically correct.   

 

__________

ALIAS SOAPY SMITH
BOOK SALE

(Click image to enlarge)

Link to purchase
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Jeff. Smith's Parlor museum restoration

February 4, 2009 (Part 1)
February 19, 2009 (Part 2)  
March 31, 2010 (Part 3)  
August 7, 2010 (Part 4) 
February 11, 2011 (Part 5) 
April 5, 2011 (Part 6)
May 8, 2011 (Part 7)
May 17, 2011 (Part 8)
November 20, 2011 (Part 9)
March 21, 2012 (Part 10)
March 30, 2012 (Part 11)
June 20, 2012 (Part 12)
August 8, 2012 (Part 13)
August 29, 2012 (Part 14)
September 1, 2012 (Part 15)
September 26, 2012 (Part 16)
October 4, 2012 (Part 17)
December 6, 2012 (Part 18)
December 16, 2012 (Part 19)
March 11, 2013 (Part 20)
May 6, 2013 (Part 21)

"Jeff Smith's Parlor had his name in large letters across the front facade of the building. This was Soapy's personal podium, the place where he stood at the bar at shined as the "respected businessman, law abiding citizen, and patriot." I guess you could say that the false front extended into the inside of the Parlor as well. Old timers referred to the Parlor as 'the real city hall.'"

―Jeff Smith

MAY 27

1647: Achsah Young, of Windsor, Connecticut is executed for being a "witch." It was the first recorded execution of a "witch" in the colonies.

1668: Three colonists are expelled from Massachusetts for being Baptists.

1813: Americans capture Fort George in Canada.

1837: Famed lawman and gambler, James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok is born in Troy Grove, Illinois.

1870: It is reported that the Indians who had attacked a Kansas Pacific construction crew new Kit Carson, Colorado Territory on May 13, 1870, crossed the Union Pacific tracks at Antelope, Wyoming Territory, with four cavalry companies in pursuit.

1873: Members of the outlaw James-Younger Gang rob the St. Genevive, Missouri Bank of $4,100.

1892: Soapy Smith advertises McGinty, the petrified man, in Denver, Colorado. A surviving photograph shows it is displayed in one of his auction houses.

1896: 255 people are killed in St. Louis, Missouri by a tornado.

1898: The White Pass & Yukon Railway Company arrives in Skagway, Alaska, in force to begin construction.

1901: The Edison Storage Battery Company is organized.

1907: The Bubonic Plague breaks out in San Francisco, California.