Anchorage Street Memories
Do you know who some of Anchorage's streets and areas were named after? Enjoy this special edition.
The Muldoon homestead, built in the winter of 1940 - 1941
To get to his homestead, he needed a road.
Muldoon Road in Anchorage, is named after Arnold L Muldoon who actually built the road from the Glenn Highway to his homestead.
His original road was a “corduroy road”, which is made by clearing a path and then tree trunks are laid across the ground.
Arnold’s path quickly became known as “Muldoon’s Road”.
BONUS
The story of Arnold L Muldoon is a fascinating look at Anchorage history, including two men who tried to run him off his homestead.
To learn more, take a look this story from I Love Muldoon and enjoy.
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Klevin Street
This Anchorage street, located in the Russian Jack Park neighborhood, was named after a homesteader named Nels Kleven.
Notice that the spelling of the street name varies slightly from the spelling of Nels Kleven’s last name.
Spenard Road
Spenard Road, 1958
Photo courtesy of Linda Miller
The sign reads, “Entering SPENARD “The Land of the Free for All”.
Spenard, Spenard Road and Spenard Lake are all named after one of the most colorful characters from the very early days of Anchorage while it was still a tent city.
Joseph A. Spenard decided he could supply the town site with lumber. So he went into a forest preserve and decided to cut down those trees and transport them back to tent city where he could sell them.
Like Arnold Muldoon, Joe needed to build a corduroy road from Tent City to where he was cutting trees. Spenard convinced a couple of the early civic clubs to help him. When the road was complete, it became known as Spenard Road.
Lane Street
Hotel owner Harry Lane
Anchorage Memories research didn’t discover much about Harry Lane or the Crescent Hotel, except that the hotel was located on 4th Avenue.
However, Mr. Lane was later honored with an Anchorage street named after him.
If you know anything about Anchorage pioneer Harry Lane, we would love to hear from you.
Russian Jack
The newspaper ad above was to promote Jacob Marunenko, “Russian Jack” for the Fur Rendezvous Mardi Gras King.
The ad ran in the February 14, 1948, Anchorage Daily Times. Russian Jack lost by a landslide, but was declared the “Prince” of the event.
Between Joe Spenard and Russian Jack it would be hard to tell which was more of a “colorful character”.
In the early days, the residents of tent city gave each other nicknames. And since Jacob Marunenko, who also went by “Jack”, was Russian, he became known as “Russian Jack”.
One of Russian Jack’s endeavors, involved selling moon shine, known locally as “squirrel juice”. But since the Alaska Railroad prohibited the sale or consumption of alcohol at tent city, folks like Russian Jack built stills and came up with interesting ways to sell their brew.
Russian Jack went way out of town, became a squatter and built a cabin in the woods where he also hid his still. The area had a natural spring and was later named Russian Jack Springs.
BONUS
His story is a fascinating one and his name lives on in Anchorage neighborhoods, and parks.
Take a look at this story of Russian Jack and enjoy.
Hoyt Street
Hoyt Motor company on 5th and E streets
Harry Hoyt owned one of the first car dealerships in Anchorage.
Harry and his wife were also devoted outdoors adventurers.
Hoyt Street is named after Harry Hoyt.
BONUS
Take a look at the following story from a member of Anchorage Memories VIP Newsletter.
“My first real job was at Hoyt Motors. It was in 1949, and I was 15-16 years old. I greased cars, fixed tires including large truck tires with split ring rims. One of my main jobs was washing new Dodge and Plymouth cars. I actually learned to drive in those new cars, wasn't about to tell the boss that I didn't know how to drive. Will never forget when at a stop, the guy in front stated to back up, and I couldn't get that fluid drive Dodge to go into reverse. He stopped just in time!”
Gene
Marijane Street
Mary Jane Dougherty of Anchorage Memories has an Anchorage subdivision street named after her.
Mary’s stepfather created the subdivision and named many of the streets after family members.
The subdivision was opened in the late 1960s. Notice that the street name varies from her real name.
Do You Or Your Family Have An Anchorage Street Named After You (or them)?
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You guessed it…
The picture above isn’t of Mike and Mary of Anchorage Memories.
It’s a picture of our daughter Nikki, son Christopher and our family dog “Snoopy”.
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Mike and Mary
Anchorage Memories
Area around Old Seward and Huffman, including part of Oceanview, was the homestead of Tom Sperstadt. Jack Ass Lane (now called Silver Fox) was named after his donkey. He was one of the original developers of Oceanview. His dad homesteaded out around where AIA is now. State Manor and Hamilton Park were developed by Mr. Stephenson (ph pronounced as f) and Mr. Hamilton. Each have streets in the subdivision named after them.
Cook Avenue – How Cook Avenue Got its Name.
Do you recall North 1st Street on Government Hill in Anchorage? It ran from Harvard Street at Brown’s Point to Bluff Road. It later became Delaney Street and Cook Avenue.
We lived at 212 North 1st Street.
I don’t recall a North 2nd Street or North 3rd Street.
The City of Anchorage planning department was in the process of standardizing street names and addresses in Anchorage. The street name “North 1st Street” was inconsistent with the other street names on Government Hill. All the other street names were names of early railroad employees, and there were no other numbered streets in the area.
An engineer from the city planning department had a question about North 1st Street and called Dad, Irvin “Pat” Cook, Chief Engineer of The Alaska Railroad. Dad was also on the city planning commission at the time.
The question posed to Dad was, “Is there another name for the street that you live on?” Without skipping a beat, on a lark, teasingly, Dad said, “Oh yes, it is Cook Avenue, named after me. All the streets on the West side of Government Hill are named after railroad employees.”
Thinking Dad was teasing, the city engineer thought the Cook Avenue name was after Capt. James Cook, the British sea explorer. The fact is the name Cook Avenue had never been used for North 1st Street. Dad was surprised to see his name posted on the new street signs and our address changed to 255 W. Cook Avenue.
Pat Cook, Jr.