Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on April 26, 1993.
According to the narrative on the nomination form:
Link
The Star is the largest, most commanding building on the boardwalk known as Creek Street in the southern southeast Alaska community of Ketchikan. Although built earlier, the Star can be documented for its use as a house of prostitution from 1917 until 1954. By 1917, the original building had been enlarged to its present size and a few years later when a hipped roof replaced the flat roof on the addition the building took on its present appearance. The Star is the only remaining house of prostitution on pilings over Ketchikan Creek that retains its historic integrity. The period of significance ends in 1943, fifty years ago.
Discoveries of gold and copper and development of salmon salteries and canneries brought people to southern southeast Alaska in the 1880s. The town of Ketchikan began as a supply center for miners and fishermen. Typical of many towns in their infancy, Ketchikan grew haphazardly and unplanned. The white population settled to the north of Ketchikan Creek, and the Indians and various ethnic minorities settled to the south of the creek. Prostitutes were attracted to Ketchikan by the number of single men working in the booming industries. In 1903, the town council passed an
ordinance requiring all "Bawdy Houses" to move south of Ketchikan Creek. Creek Street, located near the harbor where fishermen moored their boats, became the red-light district in Ketchikan. The Star was one of the town's houses of prostitution.