Anchorage Sites

"During the depression years (1938-39) the Central Grade School in Anchorage was built in Art Deco design, as a PWA (Public Works Administration) project of the Roosevelt Administration." (ed.gov) The building was located on Fifth Avenue between F St. and G St. It is no longer extant. PWA Docket No. AK W1023.

The historic former Anchorage City Hall was built during the Great Depression with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. The P.W.A. supplied a grant of $32,727 toward the project, whose total cost was $79.553. The building, which was constructed between April and September 1936, continues to serve municipal functions. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"Constructed almost twenty years before Alaska became the forty-ninth state, the Federal Building in Anchorage symbolized the U.S. government's commitment to the economic growth and development of the territory. Providing residents with a post office, courthouse, and other federal services, it was the first large federal building constructed in Anchorage." (U.S. General Services Administration) "The building housed every federal agency with an office in Anchorage, and tenants included the Civilian Conservation Corps, the United States Department of the Interior, the Signal Corps, and the Alaska Railroad. In order to accommodate all of them, the building expanded several times. The first wing...

"The most significant interior space is the original federal district courtroom on the first floor. This room retains its original stained walnut wainscot and benches, and features an oil-on-canvas mural titled 'Alaskan Landscape' behind the judge's bench. The mural was the work of Arthur Kerrick, who secured a Works Progress Administration commission in 1942. The oil-on-canvas painting was not, however, installed until the 1950s. Five murals were planned for the courtroom, but only the Kerrick mural was completed and installed. Art conservator Peter Malarkey restored the mural in 1993." (www.gsa.gov)

Glenn Highway, from Anchorage to Matanuska (Palmer): “One of the major road projects in 1935 and 1936 was the completion of the Anchorage to Matanuska Road, or Palmer Highway, which later became part of the Glenn Highway, with funds from the FERA. Begun as a joint project by the ARC and the City of Anchorage in the 1920s, and called the Anchorage Loop or the Anchorage-Eagle River Road the ARC took over its maintenance and began improving and extending it from Anchorage to the communities of Chugiak and Peters Creek in 1933. In 1935, the Matanuska Colony project near...

A sizable street paving project in Anchorage, Alaska was undertaken during the Great Depression with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. The P.W.A. supplied a grant of $45,000 toward the project, whose total cost was $101,737. Work occurred between Dec. 1938 and Aug. 1939.

The Works Progress Administration contributed $3,356 toward the construction of water mains in Anchorage, Alaska, between 1939 and 1940.