The Nolan Center is as indispensable to Wrangell as the post office, fresh seafood, ice cleats in the winter and raingear the rest of the year.

The center, which opened in 2004, provides a home for community meetings, memorial services, weddings, town hall gatherings, potlucks, public markets and conferences. It’s Wrangell’s movie house and performance theater. The museum teaches history.

The building is a highlight for visitors and a shining light for the community.

But it wasn’t an easy project to pull together. Even with a $6 million donation from a charitable trust established by the late Wrangell State Sen. James Nolan and his wife Elsie; a sizable contribution from the Rasmuson Foundation, established by the Alaska banking family who helped build the state at the same time James Nolan was doing his part; and individual donations; the center needed $2.5 million from the municipal treasury.

As with any expenditure of public money, there were critics. And, as with any public criticism in Wrangell, it was loud and cranky at times.

Some opponents didn’t like the location on the downtown waterfront. Some thought it should go on a parcel of state land near Petroglyph Beach. Some liked the idea of a new museum for the town but objected to the community center. Opponents thought the multipurpose civic center was too expensive and more than the town needed or could afford.

In January 1999, the city council voted to ask the public’s permission whether to accept the $6 million gift from the Nolan estate, then reconsidered and decided it would set a lousy precedent to make acceptance of a gift subject to a ballot question in a special election.

Thankfully, the city council made the right call to accept the donation and go ahead with the project. The Nolan Center in many ways is the center of the community. Not only would there be a hole on the waterfront had the civic center not been built, there also would be a giant hole in the town’s quality of life and amenities.

Fast forward to 2026, and this is not to say that the borough’s extensive plans for an expanded downtown waterfront and industrial subdivision at the former 6-Mile mill property are guaranteed to turn out as well as the Nolan Center. But it is to say that resistance to new ideas to improve the community risk stopping good things from happening.

As residents learn about the waterfront and 6-Mile development plans, as they look at the numbers and look over the plans, keep in mind what the town would be like without the Nolan Center.