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.
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.
I worked with a woman by the name of Dee Lane. She was apparently the daughter of the Lane you mention. She was intent on beautification of Anchorage especially the Mt. View area. She and I worked on the basic design of the park along McCarrey now known as Dave Rose Park. I know of nothing regarding the park that would tied Dave Rose to the park. I don't know if Lane is the same as in the Architectural Firm of Lane, Plunkett and Knorr. I knew Don Knorr. They actually did some work on a rehab of a building in SF where I was a principal of the firm Anthony M. Guzzardo aka TGP later in the 2000's. Several of the north/south streets in Wonder Park were named after Presidents of the UofA Fairbanks. The streets of "south Mt. View" changed frequently over the years. I've posted one of the original maps of "South Mt. View" on a couple of Anchorage web sites. The homesteads north of Debarr regrew as birch/spruce forest then new streets platted and named. Boniface has some historical write-ups as does Turpin (another homesteader)
The east/west streets in Wonder Park maintain the older system of naming the streets after Alaskan Rivers. Wish I knew how to post the image on this site.
Randall - thank you for the information. By the way, there is no way for anyone to post pictures on the newsletter. You can send them to mike@anchoragememories.com, and I can post them. Thank you
An interesting read, Randall, so I checked on Dave Rose...In 1982, Dave Rose became the Permanent Fund’s first executive director, a role he held for 10 years. During that period, the fund developed its formative policies, began paying a dividend to Alaskans, and posted high investment returns, growing from $3.5 billion to $13.3 billion in size.
Rose’s first actions as director of the fund were critical for it and the citizen dividend program, which was created by the Legislature in 1981. The early 1980s were marked by repeated attempts to raid the fund in various ways as well as efforts to repeal the dividend program.
While successfully defending the fund politically, Rose also managed its investments profitably, sometimes bucking conventional wisdom. In 1987, he decided to drastically reduce the fund’s holdings in stocks because he believed the stock market was overvalued. As the market continued to rise, he weathered criticism for "losing" additional profits.
But Rose appeared prescient in October of that year, when the market crashed 500 points in one day, losing 22.6 percent of its value, and leaving the Alaska Permanent Fund performing above 91 percent of major investment funds for the year.
Jody, interesting information regarding Dave Rose. I knew of him and his political career. However, I still have no answer from any individual with whom I worked as to why the park became named for him. For his efforts regarding the Permanent Fund? I would have thought the park created would have been honored with a name of someone heavily involved in the creation or funding or....(?) of the park. I do not begrudge the use of Dave Rose name for the park. I vividly recall "designing" the concept of the park for a video organized by Dee Lane. I would stand in a spot on the field pretending to draw a "bubble diagram" of the park. The shot would show me from a distance then, via the magic of 1970's electronics, zoom into a shot over my shoulder which included a view of the finished bubble diagram. Originally, most of the park was a borrow pit (gravel pit) serving as a holding pond for all of the Spring Break-Up seasons run-off from Caribou Hill and springs to the east of the pit. A trailer park (very small) still exists along the park's northern edge. Every mother in the surrounding area were horrified when the pit would fill with water which, of course, attracted every active child within a good 1/2 mile of the site. The open site was also heavily used as a snow machine "zone" in the late 50's and the 1960's. The area now currently in use as the By-Pass was a vast (to this child of the 50's) muddy, swampy attempt at a "South Mt. View" development extending from the cliff-like topography just south of the Mt. View Drive to the sudden rise, again, that was present along what was then Klondike Avenue and now, I think 4th Avenue). There is a nice "Growing Up Anchorage" contribution by an individual whose home was built (by his parents) along the north side of Klondike. Jana Ariane Nelson started, ran and edited a superb web-site which drew in a number of those who grew up in the area to share the history and information. Sadly, cancer took her from us in 2015 just prior to the publication of her intended book. Whoa, too much information already. Take Care, Randy
According to the WWII draft registration, Harry Lee Lane was born July 1st, 1888 at Prince Edward Island, Canada. We was disabled in WWI. His wife was Eleanore and she is listed as the proprietor of the Cresent hotel in the 1940 census. The hotel was located at 246 Fourth ave. Harry died in 1956 and is buried at Anchorage Memorial cemetery.
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.
David - Great information - thank you for your comment -
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.
What a great story - thank you for sharing -
I worked with a woman by the name of Dee Lane. She was apparently the daughter of the Lane you mention. She was intent on beautification of Anchorage especially the Mt. View area. She and I worked on the basic design of the park along McCarrey now known as Dave Rose Park. I know of nothing regarding the park that would tied Dave Rose to the park. I don't know if Lane is the same as in the Architectural Firm of Lane, Plunkett and Knorr. I knew Don Knorr. They actually did some work on a rehab of a building in SF where I was a principal of the firm Anthony M. Guzzardo aka TGP later in the 2000's. Several of the north/south streets in Wonder Park were named after Presidents of the UofA Fairbanks. The streets of "south Mt. View" changed frequently over the years. I've posted one of the original maps of "South Mt. View" on a couple of Anchorage web sites. The homesteads north of Debarr regrew as birch/spruce forest then new streets platted and named. Boniface has some historical write-ups as does Turpin (another homesteader)
Randall - thank you, great information -
The east/west streets in Wonder Park maintain the older system of naming the streets after Alaskan Rivers. Wish I knew how to post the image on this site.
Randall - thank you for the information. By the way, there is no way for anyone to post pictures on the newsletter. You can send them to mike@anchoragememories.com, and I can post them. Thank you
An interesting read, Randall, so I checked on Dave Rose...In 1982, Dave Rose became the Permanent Fund’s first executive director, a role he held for 10 years. During that period, the fund developed its formative policies, began paying a dividend to Alaskans, and posted high investment returns, growing from $3.5 billion to $13.3 billion in size.
Rose’s first actions as director of the fund were critical for it and the citizen dividend program, which was created by the Legislature in 1981. The early 1980s were marked by repeated attempts to raid the fund in various ways as well as efforts to repeal the dividend program.
While successfully defending the fund politically, Rose also managed its investments profitably, sometimes bucking conventional wisdom. In 1987, he decided to drastically reduce the fund’s holdings in stocks because he believed the stock market was overvalued. As the market continued to rise, he weathered criticism for "losing" additional profits.
But Rose appeared prescient in October of that year, when the market crashed 500 points in one day, losing 22.6 percent of its value, and leaving the Alaska Permanent Fund performing above 91 percent of major investment funds for the year.
Jody - thank you for the information you shared -
I forgot to mention that Dave Rose and his wife Fran were part of the founding famlies of Temple Beth Shalom.
Jody, interesting information regarding Dave Rose. I knew of him and his political career. However, I still have no answer from any individual with whom I worked as to why the park became named for him. For his efforts regarding the Permanent Fund? I would have thought the park created would have been honored with a name of someone heavily involved in the creation or funding or....(?) of the park. I do not begrudge the use of Dave Rose name for the park. I vividly recall "designing" the concept of the park for a video organized by Dee Lane. I would stand in a spot on the field pretending to draw a "bubble diagram" of the park. The shot would show me from a distance then, via the magic of 1970's electronics, zoom into a shot over my shoulder which included a view of the finished bubble diagram. Originally, most of the park was a borrow pit (gravel pit) serving as a holding pond for all of the Spring Break-Up seasons run-off from Caribou Hill and springs to the east of the pit. A trailer park (very small) still exists along the park's northern edge. Every mother in the surrounding area were horrified when the pit would fill with water which, of course, attracted every active child within a good 1/2 mile of the site. The open site was also heavily used as a snow machine "zone" in the late 50's and the 1960's. The area now currently in use as the By-Pass was a vast (to this child of the 50's) muddy, swampy attempt at a "South Mt. View" development extending from the cliff-like topography just south of the Mt. View Drive to the sudden rise, again, that was present along what was then Klondike Avenue and now, I think 4th Avenue). There is a nice "Growing Up Anchorage" contribution by an individual whose home was built (by his parents) along the north side of Klondike. Jana Ariane Nelson started, ran and edited a superb web-site which drew in a number of those who grew up in the area to share the history and information. Sadly, cancer took her from us in 2015 just prior to the publication of her intended book. Whoa, too much information already. Take Care, Randy
According to the WWII draft registration, Harry Lee Lane was born July 1st, 1888 at Prince Edward Island, Canada. We was disabled in WWI. His wife was Eleanore and she is listed as the proprietor of the Cresent hotel in the 1940 census. The hotel was located at 246 Fourth ave. Harry died in 1956 and is buried at Anchorage Memorial cemetery.