Immaculate Conception Church

This is Fairbanks’s first Catholic Church, built in 1904 by Father Francis Monroe, a Jesuit, and originally located on Wendell Street on the other side of the river. In the winter of 1911, the church was moved closer to St. Joseph’s Hospital, which is now Denali State Bank. Volunteers jacked the church off of its foundation and, using horses to pull it and logs to roll it, moved the building across the frozen Chena River. In 1914, the church roof was raised, a vesti­bule and a bell tower added, and a two-story rec­tory on one side of the church built. When visiting the church, note the tin-covered walls and ceiling, the handsome wood wainscoting, and the beautiful stained-glass windows, which celebrate the mysteries of the Rosary and detail events in the life of Jesus and his mother Mary. The church has changed little over the years.