The Polar Bar located on the east side of Main Street and south side of Bay Street, in Seldovia was owned first by John Roe. He began renting the business to John Hill in 1941, after Joe Hill’s Bar burned down. In January 1945 Roe sold the business, and then the land, to Joe Hill. Unfortunately for Joe Hill, John Roe did not own title to the land. Apparently only the building had been sold by Max Peyser to Anna Roe, wife of John Roe, in 1925.
John Roe identified a bill of sale, dated January 6, 1925, from Max Peyser to Mrs. John Roe, his wife, covering a one-story frame building, 25’ x 16’, with addition in rear known as the Peyser Building, situated between the Anderson Mercantile Company’s store and the store of M.E. Shortley, on the “beach line,” and testifies that this instrument gave his wife the title.
On January 30, 1945, after the death of his wife, John Roe transferred by his bill of sale to the Joe Hill. The description in this bill of sale is as follows: “Certain personal property described as follows, to wit: “My business known as the Polar Bar situated in the Town of Seldovia, Territory of Alaska, on the East side of Main Street and on the South side of Bay Street, together with the furniture and fixtures, including the safe, in said building.”
Later, on the 27th day of May 1947, and after the commencement of this action, John J. Roe, by quit claim deed, transferred the property itself to Joe Hill: “…, and conveying all of the right, title, color of title, interest and demand to the real property, on which said building is situated..”
In 1945, Frank Raby obtained a deed to the land owned by the estate of Capt. Filmore/Fulmor, part of which included the land where the Polar Bar sat. Raby took Joe Hill to court (Raby vs. Hill, 11 Alaska 600) and won in June 1948. Joe Hill was required to vacate the property within 3 months.
By 1950 the Polar Bar was being operated by Eni CARSON Allen who had married Henry Anderson in Seldovia in December 1948. On their marriage license he was listed as a bar tender but in 1950 census he was a salmon fisherman and Eni was the proprietor of a bar. Eni operated the Polar Bar right up through the 1964 earthquake when the boardwalk was dismantled for the urban renewal project.