Mary Lee Davis House

The Mary Lee Davis House is a bungalow-style residence with one and a half stories located at the corner of Cowles Street and 5th Avenue in Fairbanks. The building features oak wood flooring, built-in bookshelves throughout the interior, and a dedicated darkroom for photography work.

The house was built around 1916 and was the first residential building in Fairbanks to install a coal heating system. It remains the oldest continuously inhabited house in the city today.

The house reflects the interests of its original owner Mary Lee Davis, a writer who shaped her home with extensive bookshelves for her work, a dedicated photography darkroom, and carefully selected oak flooring. These personal touches reveal how she adapted the space to fit her professional and creative life.

The building now operates as a bed and breakfast establishment, offering guests accommodation with period-appropriate furnishings and fully equipped kitchen areas. Visitors should note that it remains an actively used private residence.

The construction required certain materials shipped from Seattle because local sources could not provide everything, while transportation costs in the frontier region remained extremely high. This mix of imported and local materials reveals the practical trade-offs early builders faced.