Storied history of Alaska’s oldest operating hotel

Construction of The Alaskan Hotel and Bar began in 1912 with a design that drew on the late Victorian “Queen Anne” style. Construction took a mere five months, and when the doors opened, it was declared that the keys would be attached to a toy balloon to carry them away such that the hotel would never close … and it’s stayed true to its word through some interesting times.

The bar became a cafe with sodas in 1918 during “Bone Dry” Prohibition, like most speakeasies, and the hotel was turned into a brothel twice, first legally and then not in 1977.
– Eve Lederman, The Alaska 100