Collecting Homer history

Homer’s landscape has shifted a great deal over the decades, as memory or museum exhibits can attest. People come and go, businesses change hands or close their doors for good or metamorphose to meet new needs and demands. Time passes and fades into history, and that history is left up to the keepers of memory. One of those keepers is named Tim Hatfield.

Born and raised in Homer, Hatfield comes from a family that has resided locally for generations, starting with his grandparents who established a homestead in Homer. His interest in collecting things started young and has grown over the years into memorabilia from Homer and other areas on the Kenai Peninsula, including Anchorage.

Having developed a reputation as a collector, Hatfield said that it’s becoming easier to obtain memorabilia as people start bringing their old items to him.

“A lot of times, museums might not take some of the stuff that I collect, so (people) want it to go to some place that they feel it’s going to be important to someone,” he said. “I think I am one of those places.”

Hatfield’s collections include items such as old postcards that contain Alaska postal and epistolic history, archival issues of Homer News, and memorabilia from longtime local icons such as the Homer Family Theatre. Particularly remarkable is his collection of old signs.

With two dozen signs from local businesses — former and current — and “close to 100” area road signs and other small local signs, Hatfield’s collection is as varied as the history that it represents. The sign that kick-started his serious acquisition efforts, he said, was one tied to Jean Keene, Homer’s Eagle Lady.

Measuring 4 feet by 2 feet and formerly displayed on the Homer Spit, the brown sign reads, “Eagle Feeding Area; Please stay in your vehicle; Exiting your vehicle will disturb the birds.” Hatfield acquired the sign from Dave Olson, former owner of Cafe Cups — whose iconic sign Hatfield also now possesses.

He said that one of the most storied signs in his collection is the old Homer Family Theatre sign, measuring 3.5 feet by 6 feet, that hung on the movie theater when it was first established in 1963. He acquired it from former theater owners Jamie and Lynette Sutton just before the theater was sold last year.

Along with the sign, Hatfield has a variety of other theater memorabilia including a couple of original theater seats that themselves hold a romantic story.

“(It’s a) beautiful story — this couple sat in the same seats forever, for like 20 years, it was their little thing,” Hatfield said. “And when the owners (at the time) went to sell, they were going to redo all the seats, and the couple came and asked for those seats. So they got them.”

Other signs in Hatfield’s collection include the double-sided eagle sign that formerly belonged to the Pratt Museum until it was recently remodeled; two Sourdough Express signs, one hand-carved and one that once hung on the bakery’s first delivery van; the original yellow Pier One Theatre sign with its black raven design; the halibut-shaped Homer Halibut Derby sign that was used until 2019; an old Icicle Seafoods cannery sign, which Hatfield said “has a sailing ship and a map of Alaska on it” and was used in a children’s tree house for 20 years before being reclaimed; the Alice’s Champagne Palace sign, painted by Steve Herbert in 1980; a sign once belonging to Flip’s Fly-In coffee shop and restaurant, formerly located in the old Homer airport, which Hatfield restored to original condition; and more.

One of Hatfield’s most recent acquisitions was the old Homer News sign, which depicts the paper’s name and a typewriter in black on a white background and was previously displayed at the paper’s former office on Landings Street. Former managing editors Tom Kizzia and Joel Gay confirmed that the wooden, hand-painted sign also once hung on the old Homer News office on Pioneer Avenue, starting in the late 1970s.

Following the sale of the Landings Street office to Akre Holdings, LLC, the new owners posted a yard sale on Facebook in November for items left in the building — including the Homer News sign — to which Hatfield was alerted. It’s now stored safely in Hatfield’s shop with the rest of his collection.

“I was extremely excited to come get it, especially seeing as how I am kind of a collector of Homer News,” Hatfield said.

Hatfield continues to be on the lookout for new memorabilia — currently he’s on the hunt for signs belonging to Homer’s old video rental stores, Barb’s Video & DVD and Millie’s Video Store.

He said that part of collecting is “keeping stuff alive,” both for himself and to help everyone else learn or remember pieces of Homer’s past. He has considered displaying some of his signs but does not yet have concrete plans on where or how to do so.

Find more information about Hatfield’s historical collections on the Kenai Peninsula History or Anchorage History public Facebook groups.