Downtown Anchorage is a neighborhood in the U.S. city of Anchorage , Alaska . Considered the central business district of Anchorage, Downtown has many office buildings, cultural points of interest, shopping areas, as well as dining and nightlife attractions. Today's Downtown was the original site of the Anchorage Land Auction in 1915, which gave rise to today's present-day grid street pattern. The actual original townsite was a tent city located off the banks of Ship Creek , at present-day Government Hill .
5-652: The McKinley Tower Apartments , previously known as the East 4th & Denali Apartments , the Mt. McKinley Building , the McKay (or MacKay ) Building and the McKinley Building , is a historic apartment building at 337 East Fourth Avenue in the eastern downtown of Anchorage, Alaska . Originally constructed by Swalling Construction owners, John H. Clawson and Albert Swalling, as a 14-story HUD 604 apartment building named
10-696: The Cathedral Arms building in Sitka. After the building had sat for years following damage in the 1964 Alaska earthquake , it was purchased at auction by Anchorage attorney and real estate investor, Neil S. Mackay. He renamed it the McKay Building (spelling intended) and converted into an office building that housed the State of Alaska's administrative offices and a private penthouse residence occupied by Mackay. The State of Alaska moved out in 1982 when
15-727: The Mt. McKinley Bldg, it is the first, and oldest high-rise in Anchorage. McKinley Tower was designed in 1950 by Earl W. Morrison for MacDonald Architects of Seattle who also designed the nearly identical Inlet Towers at 1020 W. 12th Avenue. The building shares key design characteristics with several other buildings designed by Morrison including: Skye at Belltown in Seattle, WA. The Mendenhall Tower in Juneau, Mary Frances Towers in Ketchikan, and
20-450: The building was condemned by the city for failing fire codes. The building was completely gutted and stood windowless and abandoned for the next 20 years largely due to Mackay's legal issues in relation to the assassination of his wife Muriel Pfeil and brother in law Robert Pfeil. The tower and annex were purchased in 1998 by Anchorage developer Marc Marlow and later remodeled and brought up to code after significant seismic reinforcement work
25-678: Was completed. McKinley Tower was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. Downtown Anchorage Downtown is a major employment center for the greater Anchorage region, drawing commuters from as far away as the Matanuska-Susitna Borough . The largest industries were services , government , and retail . Downtown's architecture substantially defines the Anchorage skyline today. The tallest buildings in Alaska are located here, most notably
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