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Wendler Building, Anchorage

Submitted by: Sarah J. Martin.

Plaque Text:

Built in 1915, this is the first permanent building constructed in Anchorage and is now the oldest building still standing here. It was erected to house the Laron-Wendler Company and the city’s first general merchandising store.

 

A second plaque is nearby and reads:  Store and residence built in 1915. Only Victorian turreted structure in Anchorage. In 1948, Mrs. Myrtle Wendler Stalnaker opened Club 25 restaurant. Withstood the 8.6 earthquake of March 27, 1964. Original location was on the southwest corner of 4th Avenue and “I” Street. The building was moved to its present site and restored in 1982 through generous efforts of many in the community including the following: The Walter J. Hickel Family, building donor; Mayor Tony Knowles; Mike Carberry; Municipal Public Works Department; Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dorie Clark; Bill Mundy; Him Yarmon; Goentzel Builders; Foots House Moving; Coffman Engineers; Porath Architects; Club 25 Associates donated a preservation easement to Anchorage Historic Properties, Inc. in 1989.

Other Details 

National Register of Historic Places nomination (1988): not available online

Recorded as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ak0390/  

For more information, see Alison K. Hoagland, Buildings of Alaska (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 89.

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