After a year on the market, the Sourdough Lodge has officially changed hands. The sale was finalized on March 6, with ownership of the 15,000-square-foot cedar building transferring to Oregon-based Pacific Seafood, which does business in Wrangell as Sea Level Seafoods.

The company will use the property as a bunkhouse for its workers, Amy Wentworth, senior director of environment, health and safety at Pacific Seafood, reported in an email on March 16.

The lodge, on Peninsula Street, facing the back end of the downtown harbor, has a storied history of adapting to the shifting needs of the community. Originally constructed in 1984 by Bruce and Darlene Harding, the lodge began its life as a modular bunkhouse designed to house loggers and heavy-construction crews during the mid-1980s.

As that work faded away, the Hardings transitioned the facility into a tourist destination, known for more than three decades as The Sourdough Lodge.

In 2017, the 16-room property took on a more clinical role when it was sold and repurposed as Harbor House, an assisted-living and senior housing facility intended to address a shortage of local elder care. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the borough paid to use the building as a quarantine and isolation site.

The most recent owners, John Taylor and his son Zach, purchased the property in May 2023 with the intent of returning the business to its hospitality roots. They rebranded the place back to The Sourdough Lodge, opening it once again for guests and maintaining its famous harbor-view great room as a venue for weddings and community gatherings.

However, the elder Taylor said the demands of the property eventually became overwhelming. Reflecting on the decision to sell, he explained that while they were happy to own the site, “it just required more work than we had time to put into it.”

The sale to Pacific Seafood is a return to the building’s original purpose as worker housing.

Reflecting on his tenure, Taylor thanked his family for supporting his dream of ownership and offered high praise for property manager Jillian Privett. “She was the manager of the century,” he said of Privett. “That place couldn’t have run without her.”