Alaska Engineering Commission Cottage No. 25

Alaska Engineering Commission Cottage No. 25, built in 1917, is associated with the Alaska Railroad and the early development of Anchorage. The Department of the Interior formed the Alaska Engineering Commission (AEC) in 1915 to construct a railroad from Seward to Fairbanks. The commission employed many people who remained in Anchorage, a town created as a construction camp, platted by the AEC, and later made the railroad's administrative headquarters. The AEC constructed nineteen cottages to house railroad employees and their families in Anchorage. The AEC sold most of the cottages in the 1920s. It transferred ownership of Cottage No. 25 to the Signal Corps in 1926. The cottage has remained under government ownership throughout its existence. It is an excellent example of employee housing provided by the AEC in Anchorage.

In 1912, Congress authorized President William H. Taft to study and evaluate those railroad routes which would best "develop the country (Alaska) and resources thereof for the use of the people of the United States." The president created an Alaskan Railroad Commission to survey prospective routes. The commission made two recommendations: one to extend the Copper River & Northwestern Railway from Cordova to the interior city of Fairbanks, tapping into the Bering River coal fields; and the other to link the Alaskan Northern Railway through the Matanuska-Susitna Valley with the Innoko-Iditarod mining district. Before the commission's report was adopted, Woodrow Wilson replaced Taft as president.

Shortly after taking office, Wilson created the Alaskan Engineering Commission and appointed a new three-person commission to study feasible railroad routes in Alaska. Members included William C. Edes, Thomas Riggs, and Lt. Frederick Mears. The AEC saw long-range benefits in opening the Matanuska and Susitna river valleys to develop agriculture and tap coal resources. After extensive ground location surveys, this second commission recommended a route originating at Seward and continuing to Fairbanks. Congress passed an Enabling Act on March 12, 1914, and approved $35 million for construction. On April 10, 1915, President Wilson announced his selection of the Seward-Fairbanks line for the new Alaska Railroad. Wilson authorized the Secretary of the Interior to purchase the 72 miles of the privately-owned Alaskan Northern Railway, and the privately-owned Tanana Valley Railway from the Chatanika mining area to Fairbanks.

Prospective employees gathered at the mouth of Ship Creek as soon as the announcement was made that the site was to be a major railroad construction camp. Within a few weeks, tents and log houses stood on the north side of Ship Creek, underneath what is now called Government Hill. The AEC contracted with independent construction firms to build 100-foot sections of the railroad north and south from Ship Creek, enticing contractors to move to Anchorage. The presence of the AEC stimulated entrepreneurs to establish restaurants, entertainment, clothing, and supply stores.

In addition to building the railroad, the AEC surveyed townsites and held auctions to sell lots at Anchorage, Matanuska, Wasilla, Talkeetna, and Nenana. The auction in Anchorage took place on July 10, 1915, and 655 lots in the townsite sold for almost $150,000. AEC Commissioner Lt. Mears and Andrew Christensen, Chief of the Alaskan Field Division of the General Land Office, oversaw the survey and townsite development of Anchorage. The AEC established water and sewage systems, a school, a hospital, and federal and municipal government facilities. By the spring of 1916, 1, 108 lots had been sold and Anchorage had 4,500 people. The AEC moved its administrative operations from Seward to Anchorage because the Cook Inlet town was more central to the overall rail line. With this transfer, the AEC built a series of cottages to provide housing for its employees in Anchorage on lots that had been retained by the commission. The AEC built fourteen cottages on Government Hill in 1915, and the second set of nineteen cottages on the original townsite the next year.

The AEC management regarded comfortable living arrangements as essential. They explained in a government report: "Providing of ample sanitary housing facilities for employees was wise and was necessary for returning ample working forces, the maintenance of a proper morale amongst the workers employed on the enterprise, and necessary to the preservation of the health, and the maintenance of order in the new communities."

Cottage No. 25 was one of the second sets of cottages constructed. Originally, nine different house plans were developed. Examples of five plans remain today. Work on Cottage No. 25 and the others in the original townsite began in the summer of 1916 and the houses were ready for occupancy by February 1917.

J.G. Watts, townsite engineer in 1916 and townsite manager from 1917 to 1921, occupied Cottage No. 25. Watts managed the school, utilities, and government buildings in the townsite. This included determining the assessments charged for such services. The federal role in town management ended when Anchorage officially incorporated on November 23, 1920.

On July 15, 1923, President Warren G. Harding drove the golden spike at Nenana to celebrate the completion of the railroad. The AEC, having completed its mission, was officially renamed the Alaska Railroad. The various properties along the rail belt, including the Anchorage cottages, were transferred to this federal agency. In 1926, the railroad gave leaseholders the opportunity to purchase the cottages. All the cottages in the West 2nd and West 3rd Avenue vicinity, except Cottage No. 25, went into private ownership. The Signal Corps took Cottage No. 25 and used it as housing. Later the Army and Coast Guard used the house. On July 18, 1991, the Municipality of Anchorage acquired Cottage No. 25 and it is managed by Anchorage Historic Properties, Inc., a grantee of the municipality. Cottage No. 25 is a good example of the town's early residential buildings, marking the railroad roots and early development of Anchorage.