Federal Building-U.S. Courthouse

The history and architecture which are associated with the Anchorage Federal Building draw their significance from the following: (1) the original town plan as platted by the Alaska Engineering Commission; (2) the architectural contribution of the building to the Anchorage Community; and (3) those politicians and public servants who are profoundly linked to Alaskan and national history through this landmark.

In the summer of 1915 a temporary settlement along Ship Creek, known simply as the "Tent City," gave way in an orderly fashion as a townsite was platted and lots were sold to create Anchorage, the shipping and operational headquarters for the construction of the Alaska Railroad (ARR). The plan was the most simplistic possible a series of square blocks, separated in T-square precision by a network of grid streets. The plan acknowledged only a few special uses of land: a school reserve, a municipal reserve, a cemetery reserve, park reserves, and, important to the matter at hand, a federal reserve. The blocks of reserved land have all had a permanent role in the townsite's development. The intended functions are apparent to this day. In the case of the Federal Reserve, the site was quickly developed. A Post Office sprung into operation that summer of 1915 as Anchorage's first government building. Soon to follow were the Federal Marshall's Office and a Territorial Jail. Those three structures remained the extent of development on the federal reserve until 1939 when the present structure was built.

Given the space needed for postal service, continuing federal agency expansion, and the condition of the original Post Office, Anchorage citizens, especially the Chamber of Commerce, started clamoring for a new Federal Building as early as the late 1920s. Delegate Anthony J. Dimond, the Territorial Representative to Congress, pressed hard for the funding; it was finally appropriated through the Treasury Department's Procurement Division in 1938. That summer Post Master General Farley, who had come to Alaska to study air mail feasibility, broke ground for the building (unofficially, as the actual plans had not been finished at that point in time).

The design of the Federal Building was coordinated through the Public Buildings Branch of the Treasury Department's Procurement Division. The Architects associated with the Federal Building are Louis A. Simon, Supervising Architect, and Gilbert Stanley Underwood, Consulting Architect. These architects are notable in the sense of the prodigious program to which they were attached and the prolific number of government buildings that they helped to create. Simon, a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had a long career (1896-1941) with the U.S. Treasury Department. In 1933 he was appointed as Supervising Architect, of Public Buildings Administration; consequently, his name has come to be engrained on many cornerstones of U.S. Federal Buildings. During the early 1930's he was sent to Europe to study the applicability of the emerging techniques of modern architecture to the design and construction of needed U.S. government buildings. Underwood had a distinguished career as a consulting architect and rose to national prominence. Educated at Yale and Harvard, he worked for many years on the West Coast in consultation with the Union Pacific Railroad and the U.S. Treasury Department. The last ten years of his career were spent in the nation's capital.

The New Deal Era, those twelve F.D.R. years, presented a rare and exciting opportunity to the likes of Simon and Underwood. Partly as a recovery measure, partly out of the need for better facilities, governmentally financed projects blossomed throughout the states and territories. A major highlight of the period is that engineering technology, especially that of concrete and steel, was melded into the field of architecture. Given the emerging theory of form, function, and materials, the period marked the birth of modern architecture in this country.

Turning from the broad scope of that movement to the Federal Building at Anchorage, a related process unfolded to affect urban design in the original townsite. The civic architecture of the major structures to be built in the late 1930s', the City Hall (1936), the Anchorage Elementary School (1938), and Providence Hospital (1938), was pronounced in the use of concrete and size of the buildings; yet, the designs, especially that of the City Hall, were enamored with quasi-classical or other frivolous detail. It was the Federal Building, which was so devoid of detail, so cubic and so simplistic in its expression of line, that was the most definitive expression of modern architecture in 7 Anchorage at that time. The Federal Building culminated a brief span of years through which Anchorage moved from the frame construction era to the concrete era, and in doing so, marked the transition to modern architecture.

In that era of economic depression, Federal involvement in the Affairs and development of Alaska could mean economic stability. The Federal Building, as a symbol of Federal Agencies, Judiciary, and Postal Services, was a major psychological boost to the citizens of Anchorage; in short, as a local editor said, "It meant Uncle Sam was here to stay!"

The most noteworthy aspect of the interior is the original Federal District Court Room. The woodwork, although not exceptional, is dignified. The decorative gem of that room is the WPA mural behind the judge's dais. Research has not produced the identity of the artist; however, he did capture to a large measure the essence of the Alaskan Landscape. His soaring mountains give way to aquamarine glaciers; in turn, the ice is resolved by the sea; and at the water's edge the fisheries and forest hint at the era's economy. The mural is one of two or three which were produced in the territory at
that time.

Beyond architectural history, the Federal Building has a story to tell about the agencies who have been tenants there, and more importantly, about those Alaskans who have played a prominent role in territorial and state history. The original tenancy of the building included: the Post Office; the Third District Court; the U.S. Marshall's Office; the Division of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Interior; the Division of Fire Control; the Civilian Conservation Corps; the Extension Service; the U.S. Signal Corps; and the Alaska Railroad. Each had its own separate impact on this Alaskan region, whether in developing communication and transportation or in establishing law and order. The list of individuals whose court offices or congressional offices have been in the building reads as a substantial portion of Who's Who in Alaskan Politics. As to the judiciary, it was Judge Simon Hellenthal who played a prominent role in having the Federal District Court relocated to Anchorage from Valdez; this Alaskan Pioneer presided over the court until 1945. Anthony J. Dimond followed Hellenthal to the courtroom's dais. Dimond made extraordinary contributions to Alaska: first, as Mayor of Valdez, then, as a Territorial Senator, and finally, as the Alaskan delegate to the U.S. Congress (1932-1945). Dimond completed his public service career in the courtroom of the Federal Building.

As the symbol of the Federal government in Anchorage, the Federal Building was a major focal point in the spirited ceremonies that followed the Congressional passage of the Statehood legislation. The facade of the building was literally engulfed in the 49th Flag during those celebrated moments in 1958. After Statehood the Congressional contingents moved into the Federal Building to man field offices for the Alaskan people. The first Senators, Bob Bartlett and Ernest Gruening initiated this practice on a seasonal basis during periods of Congressional Recess. Senators Ted Stevens and Mike Gravel man full-time offices there at this time. Representatives who have had offices in the Federal Building include Congressman Nick Begich and Congressman Don Young who currently maintains an office there.

Among the more notable architectural achievements of the consulting architect, Gilbert Stanley Underwood, are the San Francisco Mint, the Federal Building in Los Angeles, and the first building of the U.S. State Department's complex in Washington, D.C.

The National Archives has found the names of the artists who painted the mural in the courtroom. Richard Haines and Arthur Kerrick collaborated on the project, having won the commission through a Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) contest. Both artists have been listed in Who's Who in American Art.