The Alaska Podcast (HD): Recent Episodes
Alaska.org
These simple cottages, housing Alaska Engineering Commission engineers and railroad workers, started dotting the landscape of Anchorage in the late 1910s. Many were ultimately turned into offices, others were moved, and some were even dragged to the dump, where the fire department would set them ablaze just for practice. The remaining homes—such as the Leopold Davis house, home to Anchorage’s first mayor—offer a window into life in Anchorage during the 1920s and ’30s.
This clearing at the edge of town once functioned as a firebreak between Anchorage and its neighboring forest. At other times, it acted as an airstrip, a golf course and even a makeshift housing development, when people lived here during the 1940s boom in apartments created out of old barracks. Today the Park Strip—just one block wide but 13 blocks long—is home to ball fields, a gym, ice rink and a giant steam locomotive.
Wendler Building (HD) In such a male-centric city, it has often been tough for Anchorage’s ladies to sit down and enjoy a cocktail without—well, being crowded out by the men. This spot, also known as “Club 25,” was a popular café and bar in the 1940s and ’50s—but with a catch. It was for women only. The building was so beloved that it was moved from its original site—now home of the Hotel Captain Cook—to its current location just up the street.
Oscar Gill House (HD) Oscar Gill was a local statesman who played a key role in Alaska gaining statehood, but his house achieved fame all on its own. Gill was Anchorage’s mayor during Prohibition, when bootlegging was big business. Gill denied any involvement himself, but his house clearly acted as someone’s portal for smuggling booze. Window sills could be jerry rigged to send bottles up through the walls and between the studs. Today you can still see pieces of broken bottles inside the walls.
Oscar Anderson House (HD) This 1915 A-frame building was the first actual home built in Anchorage, initially standing out amongst the sea of tents surrounding it.
Old City Hall (HD) When it went up in 1936, this was—for a little while, at least—Anchorage’s biggest building, encompassing every major municipal function from the mayor’s office and firehouse to the phone department.
4th Ave Theatre (HD) this grand, art-deco theatre was opened in 1947 by Cap Lathrop, a 20th-century media mogul who wanted to establish Alaska as the Hollywood of the North.
Anchorage Hotel (HD) In 1916, this two-story “high rise” was Anchorage’s first wooden building, towering over the tent city that comprised the rest of Anchorage at the time.
Anchorage Federal Building (HD) It was huge, bold and smacked of permanence. Anchorage’s first concrete building was built in 1939 by the U.S. government, a sign that federal support was here to stay.
Anchorage Log Cabin (HD) The striking little house—note its completely sod roof—is still the headquarters for the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau, welcoming travelers to Anchorage today.
Loussac Sogn Building (HD) "Zack" Loussac was a Russian immigrant who came to Alaska in the early 20th century, ran a successful drugstore in Anchorage and ultimately had a huge impact on the city’s cultural soul.
Discover the Kenai Peninsula in this HD video introduction - Alaska’s Playground. Produced for Kenai Peninsula Tourism Marketing Council