National Register Listing

Loussac-Sogn Building

a.k.a. ANC-359

425 D St., Anchorage, AK

The Loussac-Sogn Building in downtown Anchorage is a rare example in the community of the Art Moderne architectural style. Built in 1947 on what was the outskirts of the business district, the professional building was a promise of the continuing growth of the town. At the time of its construction, it was the largest commercial office building in the community. It is still an impressive and important commercial building in Anchorage, but in the heart not the outskirts of downtown.

The building is one of Anchorage's second-generation commercial buildings. Such buildings were larger and of more permanent construction (cast, reinforced concrete) than the wood frame structures of earlier Anchorage. Other second-generation commercial and public buildings include Old City Hall (1936, listed in the National Register of Historic Places), Central Grade School (1938-1982), Providence Hospital (1938-1979), the Old Federal Building and Courthouse (1939, listed in the National Register of Historic Places), and the Alaska Railroad Depot (1942). The Loussac-Sogn Building, of later vintage (1947), is an example of the Art Moderne style, popular in other parts of the United States during the 1930s and 1940s.

The building's original owners, Zadrich J. Loussac and Dr. Harold Sogn, were Anchorage community leaders. Loussac was a businessman, two-term mayor, and philanthropist; Sogn was a respected local physician. The building was originally planned to be a one-story structure housing medical offices for Dr. Sogn but ambitiously grew in design and building to its present three-story height. It was constructed in the post-World War II years, a period of incredible growth for Anchorage. Many people stationed in Alaska during the war returned to live in Anchorage after the war. Between 1940 and 1950 the territory's civilian population increased from approximately 74,000 to 112,000. During the same period, Anchorage grew from 4,299 to 11,254 people. At the time of its completion, the Loussac-Sogn Building was the largest commercial building in Anchorage. William A. Manley, designer of the building, was an Anchorage resident and architect for more than thirty years. He was born in Washington in 1904 and moved to Juneau in 1913. He studied architecture at the University of Idaho in Moscow. In 1937, Manley moved to Anchorage and worked as an architect until his retirement in 1967. He was a member of the territorial Board of Architectural and Engineering Examiners. In addition to the Loussac-Sogn Building, he designed a number of major buildings in Anchorage, among them Grant Hall at Alaska Pacific University, West High School, Ursa Major, and Ursa Minor elementary schools, the Simpson and Commerce Building, and the YMCA. He also designed the façade and first addition to the Governor's Mansion in Juneau (listed in the National Register) and the Shrine of St. Therese near Juneau. Soon after the completion of the Loussac-Sogn Building, Manley moved his office to the new structure.

Zadrich J. Loussac, one of the building's original owners, was born in Polkov, Russia, in 1882. He entered the prestigious Imperial Polytechnical Institute in Moscow but was expelled for participating in a revolutionary student movement. He moved to south Russia to live with his grandmother, then crossed the border to Germany after learning that government officials were looking for him. He arrived in New York City at the age of 18, with no money and unable to speak English. He heard about the Klondike gold fields from a Yukon visitor and in 1901 started west. He stopped at Great Falls, Montana, for a nine-month job at a drug store, and temporarily put off his goal of Alaska and returned east to attend Columbia University and earn a pharmacy degree. Within the next ten years, he embarked on Alaska three times. On his first trip, he went to Nome, and after failing at gold prospecting bought a trading post in the village of Unalakleet, a losing proposition.
He worked as a steward to pay for his return passage to Seattle. On his second trip, in 1910, Loussac went to Iditarod where he opened a tent drug store and did good business until a fire destroyed his property. A local banker loaned him $12,000 to start over. Loussac built a two-story building with the loan but had timed his venture poorly. Miners in the area left for a new gold strike at Ruby. Loussac again left. It took him ten years to pay off his Iditarod debts." In 1913, Loussac returned a third time to Alaska, this time to Juneau where he opened a drug store. He moved to the new community of Anchorage in 1916 and opened a drug store on Fourth Avenue, then the commercial and business center of town. Five years later he opened another drug store along Fourth Avenue, in the new Anchorage Hotel. Loussac was a partner in the Evan Jones Coal Company, a successful mining venture in the Matanuska Valley. He was active in Anchorage civic affairs and for a time had a daily newspaper, Loussac's Daily Gossip: Cents and Sense.

Loussac invested his profits in Anchorage property, including an apartment building on D Street and the Loussac-Sogn Building. He sold both of his drug stores in 1942, and his interest in the Evan Jones Coal Company in 1943. After his retirement, he became involved in various community projects and was president of the Rotary, Chamber of Commerce, and Pioneers of Alaska. He was active in the Elks, Masons, Shriners, Knight's Temple, Territorial Board of Pharmacy, Alaska Housing Authority, and the War Bond drives. In 1947, he was elected Mayor of Anchorage, holding the office for two terms. He established the Loussac Foundation in 1946 to further social, scientific, and cultural activities in the Anchorage area. The principal beneficiary of the foundation was the Z. J. Loussac Public Library. Other beneficiaries of the foundation included the University of Alaska, Alaska Methodist University (today known as Alaska Pacific University), Sheldon Jackson College at Sitka, and Anchorage Community Theater.

Dr. Harold Sogn, co-owner of the Loussac-Sogn Building, was a local physician. He was born in Canton, South Dakota in 1904, and came to Alaska with his parents in 1920. He worked for a short time at Loussac's drug store and as a laboratory assistant at the Alaska Railroad Hospital. studied at the University of Washington and Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. In 1940, he began to practice medicine in Anchorage. Although he was a general practitioner, he became well known as "the baby doctor." In 1946, Sogn opened the first clinic of medical specialists in Anchorage called the New Doctor's Clinic. They occupied the first floor of the Loussac-Sogn Building when it was completed.

Working with him were Dr. George E. Hale, Dr. Vernon A. Cates, Dr. Tom Brandon, Dr. Ray D. Coffin, Dr. Russell Jackson, and Dr. William H. Ivey. Sogn died of
a heart ailment in 1954.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1998.