Oregon State Forester's Office Building angle - Salem, Oregon

Linn Argyle Forrest, Sr. (1905–1987) was an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

of Juneau, Alaska who worked to restore "authentic Southeast Alaska Native architecture, especially

totem poles Totem poles ( hai, gyáaʼaang) are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually m ...

". During the 1930s and the Great Depression, he oversaw

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

programs of the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

to preserve totem poles and other aspects of traditional, native architecture. In conjunction with a $24,000 U.S. grant to the

Alaska Native Brotherhood The Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) and its counterpart, the Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS), are two nonprofit organizations founded to address racism against Alaska Native peoples in Alaska. ANB was formed in 1912 and ANS founded three years lat ...

as a CCC project, Forrest oversaw the construction of the Shakes Island Community House and totems at

Wrangell, Alaska The City and Borough of Wrangell ( tli, Ḵaachx̱ana.áakʼw, russian: Врангель) is a borough in Alaska, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 2,127, down from 2,369 in 2010. Incorporated as a Unified Home Rule Bor ...

during 1937–1939. Drawing on this experience, he later wrote ''The Wolf and the Raven: Totem Poles of Southeastern Alaska,'' which has been printed in 20 editions. Forrest designed the

Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center Mendenhall Glacier (in Tlingit language “Sít”) is a glacier about long located in Mendenhall Valley, about from downtown Juneau in the southeast area of the U.S. state of Alaska. The glacier and surrounding landscape is protected as p ...

, the Juneau Federal BuildingA cabin on the lake

Juneau Empire The ''Juneau Empire'' is a newspaper in Juneau, Alaska, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in ...

and, with Harold B. Foss, the nearby Chapel by the Lake. He designed the Elvey Building and the Ernest N. Patty Gymnasium (1963) at the

University of Alaska, Fairbanks The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public land-grant research university in College, Alaska, a suburb of Fairbanks. It is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska system. UAF was established in 1917 and opened for cla ...

. Forrest came to Alaska after working in the 1930s in Oregon, where he was the lead exterior designer of

Timberline Lodge Timberline Lodge is a mountain lodge on the south side of Mount Hood in Clackamas County, Oregon, about east of Portland. Constructed from 1936 to 1938 by the Works Progress Administration, it was built and furnished by local artisans during th ...

on Mount Hood.http://mrvarchitects.com Forrest is the architect of record of the Oregon State Forester's Office Building, at 2600 State Street in Salem, Oregon, constructed by CCC workers and craftsmen and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. At one time he worked for the architecture group within the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

Northwest regional office. Forrest married and had a family. His son, Linn Forrest, Jr., also became an architect. Together the two men designed the

Alaska State Centennial Museum The Alaska State Museum is a museum in Juneau, Alaska, United States. The museum's collections include cultural materials from the people of the Northwest Coast (Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian), the Athabascan cultures of Interior Alaska, the Inupia ...

References

External links

Linn A. Forrest Photograph Collection, 1930s-1950s , Sealaska Heritage Institute's Collections

Picasa collection of Linn A Forrest photos
Architects from Oregon Architects from Alaska Fellows of the American Institute of Architects People from Juneau, Alaska 1905 births 1987 deaths 20th-century American architects People from Crawford County, Ohio University of Oregon alumni {{US-architect-stub