Wendler Building

The Wendler Building is a foremost example of first-generation commercial buildings in Anchorage. It was constructed in 1915 on Fourth Avenue, the new town's main street. It is the most distinctive, architecturally, of the half-dozen commercial buildings still standing in Anchorage that were built during the town's first year of existence. The building had to be moved from its original site in 1984 to prevent its destruction, but it was relocated within a half mile of its original site, still in downtown Anchorage, still on Fourth Avenue, and on a southwest corner of an intersection sited as it was originally.

Anchorage was a tent city known as Ship Creek in the spring of 1915 when the townsite was surveyed and platted by the Alaska Engineering Commission. The Commission was a federal agency created to build the Alaska Railroad. Several thousand people came to Ship Creek in early 1915 to compete for jobs or to open businesses when they learned that it was to be the construction headquarters for the railroad. A.J. (Tony) Wendler and R.T. Larson opened their merchandising
store in the center of the new business district, on Fourth Avenue, that first year.

Wendler was of German descent. He was reared in Michigan and later moved west to Oregon where he worked for a number of years. He moved to Valdez, on Prince William Sound, in 1909. There he ran a brewery until the prohibition movement in the territory impaired his business. Along with a number of other Valdez residents, Wendler moved to Anchorage upon learning of the impending railroad construction and town development. At the first townsite auction, held July 10, 1915, Mrs. A.J. Wendler acquired the corner lot upon which the grocery store was to be built. She paid $555 for it. The average price paid at the first auction for lots on Fourth Avenue was $548; the average price paid at that auction for all the townsite lots sold was $225.

During Anchorage's early years, Wendler was very active in community affairs. He was president of the Chamber of Commerce, from 1915-1916. He was the clerk of the first school board. Along with his wife, Wendler was instrumental in the building of the first school (now known as Pioneer School, listed in the National Register of Historic Places). Wendler Junior High School in Anchorage is named in honor of the early pioneer businessman and his wife.

Fourth Avenue was Anchorage's main street. By fall 1915, 145 business structures were built on the townsite, 92 of them along Fourth Avenue. Eleven buildings in town were two stories high, 9 of the 11 were on Fourth Avenue. One of the 9 was the Wendler Building.

Wendler and Larson had stockpiled lumber to build their store, and construction started shortly after the townsite auction. The grocery store opened for business in October. Whereas the majority of buildings in the townsite were false-front, single-story structures, the Larson and Wendler Grocery, with its corner turret and full second story, literally stood out and above the surrounding buildings. Yet it is a very good example of frontier architecture. Other Alaskan communities, including Skagway, Juneau, and Valdez, had similar turreted structures. This Victorian design feature, popularized in the late nineteenth century, appealed to many as it gave visual prominence to a corner establishment. It was Anchorage's only turreted structure. The building exhibited Larson and Wendler's faith in the community's future. The grocery operated on the first floor, and the living quarters were on the second floor.

Larson moved out of the business in the early years. The grocery closed in 1919. Wendler's family members owned the building until 1983. That year it was sold, and the new owner donated the building to the Municipality of Anchorage with the provision that it be relocated. It was moved from the corner of Fourth and I Streets to the corner of Fourth and D Streets to maintain its location along Anchorage's main commercial street and its corner orientation.