Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription.
Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. Please use the button below to manage your account.
Once a school, then a convenience store, the former Mountain View Grocery building has been demolished.
Tina Graham
Mountain View Grocery and Liquor Store used to be a regular stop for locals.
Cheryl Venechuck
New owner James Bright bought the old Mountain View grocery and liquor store. He tore it down last week and plans to build a food court for food trucks, and storage units.
Kris Capps
Standing inside Mountain View brings back many memories.
The back of the building was built around this freezer unit, parked in place.
A historic building that was once a school for the mining community of Suntrana was torn down last week to make way for storage units and a food court plaza for food trucks.
The former Mountain View convenience store, just east of the main Healy intersection, fell to the claw of heavy equipment. Ironically, operator Ray Evans, who tore down the structure, lived in the building back in 1971, in Suntrana.
“I’m glad and sad all at the same time,” he said.
“There’s a lot of memories in that building,” said new owner James Bright, a longtime Healy resident. He considered rehabilitating the building, but it could not be saved.
“It was in pretty rough shape,” he said. “The whole ceiling and back side of the store was caved in. The building itself was sitting on half-buried 55-gallon oil drums. They were buckled and the building was starting to fall down.
“The electrical was a real nightmare,” he added. “I’m actually shocked the place hadn’t caught fire at some point. The best course of action was to take it down.”
The building was once Suntrana School, located in Suntrana, close to the coal mine. Edie and Jack Reisland, owners of Denali Grizzly Bear Resort in the McKinley Village area, were the first teachers at the school. It was their first home in Alaska, in 1958, according to their daughter, Amy Speers.
It was built by the state in the 1950s, according to local historian Beverly Mitchell.
“The first year, they hauled water and used an outhouse,” she said. “I attended school there during the 1962-1963 school year. Fortunately, we had running water and flush toilets. There were 22 students that year, probably a record number.”
There were also schools in Usibelli and Healy. In 1969, the schools consolidated and a high school was established. Grades 1-4 met in the Healy School. Grades 5-12 met in the Suntrana School.
The first and only seniors graduated from Healy-Suntrana School in 1970. That summer, Tri-Valley School was built, Mitchell said.
The Suntrana School was then used as Usibelli employee housing for a few years. That’s when Ray Evans lived there.
Jim Brannon purchased the building and moved it to its current location at the new Tri-Valley subdivision in the early 1980s, where it opened as a grocery and liquor store. It also sold gasoline.
A log truck took out the gas pumps one year, and they were never replaced.
Rumors linger that groundwater is still contaminated from that fuel rupture, but that is not true, according to Bright. He said he carefully researched that possibility through the state and discovered that the gas tanks were removed in 1992 and remediation was completed.
“They hauled off an absurd amount of dirt,” he said. “A couple hundred yards of material. State inspectors gave it the thumbs up of approval.”
Water wells within a half-mile of the site were tested and re-tested throughout the years until recently, with no contamination detected, he said.
Eventually, the name of the convenience store was changed to Mountain View and operated by the Merriman family. Vitus Energy bought the building back in 2020-2021 when it purchased the liquor license and transferred it to their gas station on the Parks Highway. The building has been for sale ever since.
“I’ve been looking at that piece of property for awhile,” Bright said. “I figured I should probably buy it before Disney or Premiere or Holland America got hold of it.”
He also has a personal connection to the building, having lived with the former owners, the Merrimans, for two years.
“So it’s kind of bittersweet taking it down,” said the 37-year-old entrepreneur.
He intends to build three steel storage unit buildings at the back of the two acres, all with roll-up doors. The former senior center will be renovated to become climate-controlled storage units, he said. He believes there is a demand for storage units in the area, which currently has none.
The front portion of the property will become a food court plaza for food trucks.
“There will be five stalls up there with permanent power and water fixtures, so they won’t have to run generators,” he said. “We’ll build some pavilions with picnic tables so there will be spots you can sit down and eat some food.”
Restroom facilities will also be available.
“It’s been kind of an eyesore for awhile,” said Bright, who currently works as a diesel mechanic for Aramark.
“We got a lotta hands on deck right now,” he said. “We’re gonna use up as much daylight as we can.”
Neighbors are supportive, he said. He is looking forward to making something new happen in his hometown. When you are there, he added, check out the view.
Reach columnist/community editor Kris Capps at kcapps@newsminer.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/FDNMKris.