National Register Listing

Eklutna Power Plant

a.k.a. Anchorage Power and Light Company;Old Eklutna Power Plant;AH

NE of Anchorage, Anchorage, AK

The Old Eklutna Power Plant was the first hydroelectric plant in this region of Alaska. It served the City of Anchorage from 1929 to 1956 when the electrical demands of a growing Anchorage exceeded its capacity. The plant was replaced by the much larger Eklutna Project. (That power plant was built in the mid-1950s by the Alaska Power Administration and is located about 5 miles east of the older Eklutna plant). Many of the original components of the half-century-old, vacant plant are in good condition. They remain as evidence of the engineering and management endeavors associated with the project.

After an initial year of development, the City of Anchorage was supplied with most public facilities, including electrical power. From 1916 to 1921, the Alaska Engineering Commission oversaw power generation and distribution; their steam plant was located in the terminal yards along Ship Creek. In 1921, not long after the incorporation of the city, the Anchorage Public Utilities was formed. This department, the forerunner of Municipal Light and Power, took over the telephone and electrical distribution facilities of the Alaska Engineering Commission.

The Eklutna Power Plant was realized through the efforts of local citizens, especially Frank I. Reed. The idea that hydroelectric power production from the Eklutna Lake source was feasible belonged to an electrical engineer with the Alaska Railroad, John J. Longacre. Yet the promotion and creation of the project was accomplished largely by Reed. Reed was a self-made financial success. After gold mining in Nome in 1903, starting a dredge operation at Cache Creek in 1913, and timber cutting in the South Central Alaskan region in 1915, he settled in Anchorage. He became the owner and manager of the Anchorage Hotel, one of his lifelong concerns. His other major concern was the Eklutna Power Plant.

His application to the Federal Power Commission was approved on March 8, 1923, and he was issued a license to undertake power development. The land on which the power plant now sits was withdrawn by Presidential Executive Order on December 5, 1927. Two weeks later he transferred that license to the Anchorage Light and Power Company, Inc.

He went to San Francisco to gain monetary support for the project. There he interested Russell-Colvin in financing the project. Through a sale of bonds, $750,000 was raised for the project. Letters of intent to use the power from both the city and railroad were instrumental in successful financing. Reed originally owned 30 percent of the stock. Later, when Russell-Colvin went bankrupt in the Depression, Reed was able to amass 60 percent of the stock.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1980.