Denali State Bank/Old St. Joseph’s Hospital

The first hospital in Fairbanks was built next to St. Matthew’s Church on 1st Avenue in 1904. It was the first framed building in Fair­banks – other buildings were built of logs. Boasting forty beds, the next hospital was St. Joseph’s, opened by the Roman Catholic Church on Thanksgiving Day, 1906. For nine years, the St. Matthew’s Hospital was on one side of the Chena River and the St. Joseph’s Hospital was on the other side until St. Mat­thew’s Church closed their hospital in 1915. Back then, St. Joseph’s was considered by many to be “out of town,” as it was on the other side of the bridge. A new addition to St. Joseph’s was built in 1951. This building is now the Denali State Bank. The old part of the hospital was torn down in 1973. Denali State Bank is a locally owned and operated community bank.