Category: Municipality of Anchorage

Municipality of Anchorage – part of Soutbcentral Alaska – east of Knik Arm and north of Turnagain Arm in Cook Inlet

The Merrill Field control tower as it looked in the 1970s. This tower was replaced in 1999. Its “cab” is now located at the Alaska Aviation Museum at Lake Hood, and is open to the public

Merrill Field serves Anchorage aviators for over 90 years

In 1915 the southern edge of Anchorage was Ninth Avenue – with only undeveloped land beyond. In about 1917, vegetation was trimmed back along a one-block wide by 16-block long strip of land south...

World War II construction laid the groundwork for North Pacific Great Circle air route

Immediately preceding and during World War II the Civilian Aeronautics Authority (CAA was the predecessor to the FAA) built and upgraded airports across the United States as part of a national defense program. Theresa...

Seward’s Brown & Hawkins Store still standing after 117 years

Charles E. Brown and Thomas William “T.W.” Hawkins both came to Alaska in 1898. Brown entered the territory via the route pioneered by the Hudson’s Bay Company – the McKenzie, Rat and Porcupine rivers,...

Anchorage's Alaska Ralroad depot, built between 1941 and 1948

Anchorage Depot has been an Alaska Railroad centerpiece for 80 years

The Alaska Railroad Depot in Anchorage is located at 411 W. First Ave., on the south side of Ship Creek at the base of the bluff on which downtown Anchorage sits. Early photos, taken...

AEC cottage 25,, one of 33 cottages built in Anchorage in 1915-16 for AEC (later Alaska Railroad) employees

Historic cottages in Anchorage spotlight Alaska Engineering Commission’s role as landlord

The U.S. Congress passed The Alaska Railroad Act in March 1914, authorizing construction of a federally-owned railway from an ice-free port on Alaska’s southern coast to Fairbanks in the territory’s Interior. President Woodrow Wilson...

Oscar Anderson House, Anchorage’s first permanent residence, is still standing today

Oscar Anderson House, Anchorage’s first permanent residence, is still standing today

Oscar Frank Anderson was a Swedish immigrant living in Seattle with his wife and three children in 1915. When he heard about the government railroad that would likely be constructed in Alaska from Cook...

Anchorage’s KENI radio transmitter building is an Art Deco gem

Alison Hoagland, in her book Buildings of Alaska, calls the KENI radio transmitter building at 1777 Forest Park Drive in Anchorage an “Art Deco gem.” Anchorage’s KENI radio station was a sister station of...

Anchorage’s Old City Hall served the city for over 40 years

When the Alaska Engineering Commission (AEC), the federal agency responsible for building the Alaska Railroad, laid out the townsite of Anchorage in the spring 1916, it set aside a “municipal reserve” for city government...

APU’s student center was the site of momentous meeting for the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

The Student Union Complex on the campus of Alaska Pacific University (formerly Alaska Methodist University), is one of the most impressive buildings in Anchorage. The primary architect for the three-building unit, constructed in 1966,...

Gull Eyot at Freestone Ponds in Portage Glacier Valley – 6-2-2021

We drove down to the Kenai Peninsula this past week, and spent the first night at Williwaw Campground in the Portage Glacier Valley. The campground is in Chugach National Forest.  At about 6 AM...