What are Spenard’s borders? No one seems to agree.

Part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.

We all have our hobbies and need our distractions, even stuffy historians. One of my hobbies is asking Anchorage folk to define Spenard, to describe what they consider as the neighborhood’s borders. Life works best if we don’t question how weird each other’s hobbies are. And this question remains interesting because no one agrees. Everybody knows Spenard but no two people seem to think of the same Spenard. On Nov. 9, 2024, I lectured on Spenard history at the Bear Tooth Theatre. As part of the festivities, I asked the audience to mark a map with what they considered to be Spenard’s borders. This article is the result of that activity.

While Spenard has been particularly elusive to define, most neighborhoods are surprisingly tricky to describe in precise terms. For every clearly demarcated community like Government Hill, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of neighborhoods with transitional spaces instead of firm boundaries. In other words, defining a neighborhood can be more of an argument than a simple arrangement of lines on a map.

Further, no matter how long in place, arbitrary definitions do not necessarily match the experience on the ground. No law of nature or man forces a description to match reality. In Anchorage, Russian Jack is a good example. For the sake of the community council system, Russian Jack is currently defined as the area between the Glenn Highway, Northern Lights Boulevard, Bragaw Street, and Boniface Parkway in East Anchorage. However, relatively few residents would say they live in a neighborhood called “Russian Jack.” Many who live in the northern half of the community council district instead call it South Mountain View, a name with decades of historical backing. Other residents are more prosaic, describing themselves as living in relation to local landmarks: “behind eastside Costco” or “near East High School.”

Most Anchorage neighborhoods have grown over the decades. Fairview, as defined by its community council area, includes stretches to the north and west not historically tied to the Fairview core. South Addition grew to the south as development moved farther from downtown. And Government Hill once consisted entirely of a single row of cottages on Harvard Avenue and overlooking Ship Creek. Spenard, however, has generally shrunk in consideration.

There is an early history of Spenard, from Dena’ina usage through Joe Spenard and his brief outlaw resort at the lake. Yet, the modern history of Spenard, particularly the history of Spenard as a neighborhood, begins in the 1940s. There were scattered homesteads in the area going back to Thomas Jeter, who had a cabin near what is now Lake Spenard before there was an Anchorage, but modern development began in the mid-1940s. The first subdivision development was at the intersection of Fireweed Lane and Spenard Road, and from there moved south. A community began to coalesce, culminating in the May 1948 vote to create a public utility district, or PUD, which was authorized to collect taxes, offer bonds, and collect fees to provide the most basic public services like water, electricity, garbage collection, road construction, dust control, grading, signage, and traffic lights.

During the 1950s, the City of Anchorage aggressively sought to annex the adjoining neighborhoods, partially to unify and simplify governance in the Anchorage Bowl. From 1939 to 1950, the Anchorage area population rapidly grew from about 4,000 residents to more than 30,000. However, in 1950, only a little more than 11,000 lived within city limits. So, while the area economy was booming, the City of Anchorage struggled with a series of budget crises, with most of the potential tax base outside their boundaries.

As of 1950, there were three PUDs in the Anchorage Bowl: Spenard, Mountain View, and Eastchester, the latter eventually renamed Fairview. Mountain View residents voted in favor of annexation in 1954. Parts of Fairview, including the predominantly Black neighborhood of the Flats between 15th Avenue and Chester Creek, were annexed into Anchorage in 1954. Russian Jack Springs Park and Rogers Park were annexed in 1958. Before that, Rogers Park fell within the Spenard PUD service area, though very few, if any, locals would think of Rogers Park as part of Spenard today. The rest of Fairview was annexed in 1959 and 1960.

Spenard annexation came to a head in 1959, first with a Spenard-wide election on March 31. To be eligible to vote, a Spenard resident had to be 21 years old, an Alaska resident for at least a year, a Spenard resident for at least 30 days, and own “substantial property interest within the area proposed to be annexed.” As in previous local annexation elections, non-property owners could not participate. No matter the justification, and there was some reasoning behind the restriction, a property-ownership requirement to vote seems anachronistic for a mid-20th-century election.

As a formal annexation election, the area up for annexation had to be strictly defined, here via City of Anchorage resolution No. 1033. As described there, Spenard reached east to the borders of Rogers Park and west through the Turnagain by the Sea subdivision, and stretched from the southern side of Chester Creek to the edge of what is now Kincaid Park, then the Point Campbell military reserve. This matched the popular conceptualization of Spenard at the time. A 1958 Anchorage Daily Times article described Spenard as “roughly that area south of the city and extending from the area of the international airport to Rogers Park. It will include Romig Park, Turnagain by the Sea, Susitna View, Woodland Park, and many other areas.”

The Spenard vote failed with 1,698 votes against and 1,348 votes in favor of annexation. Business owners and criminals fueled the antipathy toward annexation, primarily because it would cost them money, through increased policing, taxes, building codes, and so forth. There were some legitimate arguments against annexation — Anchorage promises had not exactly been kept in Mountain View, the Flats, or Rogers Park — but as Alaska Judge George Folta declared, such opposition “stems from the operators of illicit and disreputable places who resist annexation in order to avoid police regulation.”

Another election was held on June 16, a very different election. Three areas of Spenard had voted in favor of annexation: North Star, Romig Hill, and Turnagain. These areas were allowed their own election, and residents could vote even if they did not own property. And perhaps unsurprisingly these primarily residential parts of Spenard — with a lesser vice and business presence — voted for Anchorage and were annexed into the city. Suddenly, all of Spenard Road was not actually in Spenard anymore.

The rest of Spenard remained independent through 1963. Many state legislators were by then beyond tired of complaints from constituents about the lack of governance in unincorporated Alaska communities, so that year, the Legislature passed the Mandatory Borough Act. In short, a place like Spenard, as densely populated as it was, could no longer avoid the obligations of an actual city and had to, at a minimum, form a borough government. On Jan. 1, 1964, the Greater Anchorage Area Borough, or GAAB, was established, including Spenard and developments farther south and east of Anchorage proper. This division of the Anchorage Bowl ended with the unification into the Municipality in 1975.

The border between Anchorage and the Spenard portion of the GAAB became Northern Lights Boulevard, a reality reflected in other aspects of area life. When the Postal Service introduced ZIP codes in 1963, they defined Spenard as the area between Northern Lights and International Airport and west of the Seward Highway. Several iconic past and present Spenard-area businesses and landmarks, from the windmill to the Space Station, from Hogg Brothers to the Bear Tooth, from Bosco’s to Chilkoot Charlie’s, would thus not be considered part of such a strictly defined Spenard.

In this way, Midtown Anchorage was part of the Spenard Community Council District until the early 2000s. The change was pushed by lobbyist Dan Coffey, a noble endeavor to ensure businesses had a voice in local governance. Before the community council split, stores like Barnes & Noble and Walmart were Spenard shops.

At that Spenard history talk last November, 150 maps of the greater Spenard area were handed out, underestimating the turnout. Of those, 77 maps were returned marked with a version of Spenard’s borders. Not one exactly agreed with another. See some of those submissions below.

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One of 11 maps drawn by attendees to a lecture on the Spenard neighborhood presented by historian David Reamer, indicating what they believe is the border of Spenard.

From those 77 submissions, I noted the farthest north, south, east, and west boundaries attributed by the participants. In other words, I was looking for the largest area possibly defined as Spenard. No single submission included this exact boundary; this was a summary of the greatest extents noted by any of the maps, collectively. Then, I looked for the smallest area defined as Spenard by any of the maps. The latter was easier than the former. One respondent only marked Spenard Road as part of the Spenard neighborhood. The map below illustrates both those results, a greatest and least Spenard.

I also asked a couple of longtime Spenard aficionados to play along. Longtime entertainer, club operator, and now historian Mr. Whitekeys said, “For me, a lot of it is defined by what locations should be considered in Spenard, and the boundaries sort of follow from that. For instance, Lake Spenard Beach and the Hotel were definitely Old Spenard. The Magic Carpet Ride was Spenard. The Garden of Eatin’ was Spenard. Fish Creek seems like a good boundary on the West Side, And Fireweed on the north is good, but it has to be extended along Spenard Road to include the Bakery. The eastern boundary, I’m guessing, is somewhere between C Street and Arctic. It has to go as far east as the old Cindy’s Massage Parlor on Benson that was also Don Young’s campaign headquarters, and also as far east on 27th to include the row of massage parlors that were behind Bombay Deluxe. The area between 36th and Tudor is a little problematic, but it should include the big trailer court at Tudor and Arctic.”

Artist Duke Russell wrote, “Well, as you know, back in the day, wherever Chugiak Electric served was part of Spenard. But for today’s date, I would choose Hillcrest to the north, Tudor to the south, Wisconsin to the west, and Arctic to the east.”

And lastly, there is the current Spenard Community Council. Arctic Boulevard and International Airport Road form the eastern and southern borders. The northern border drops from Fireweed Avenue down to Northern Lights Boulevard to Fish Creek to Lake Spenard before ending at the International Airport in the west. That is indicated with a dotted line in the map above.

These versions of Spenard, from history through today, are each completely correct and each tragically flawed. If Arctic is an eastern border, then what of the businesses and homes on the other side? Is Northern Lights Bingo less Spenard in its heart than McDonald’s? Silly and serious questions abound. Slightly farther east, the scar on the landscape that is the former Northern Lights Hotel has some Spenard-esque attributes. But the nearby agglomeration of dentists does not feel like Spenard at all.

A more critical question: should all of Spenard Road be in Spenard? The road is only about a mile long, and per several definitions of the neighborhood boundaries, Bosco’s and the former Sunrise Bakery, now Franz, are not in Spenard. Or, how far from Spenard Road can you be and still be in Spenard? I know people who live just off the road near its southern terminus, and they were surprised when I told them that, according to the community council maps, they didn’t actually live in Spenard.

Nobody can agree, which is certainly acceptable. Several people have told me that Spenard is more of an attitude than a place. As Mr. Rogers would suggest, neighborhoods are best defined by the attachments and relationships within them. “It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine?”

In conclusion, the borders of Spenard today are honestly a trivial matter, though indeed interesting and a great way to spike some conversation around a beer or coffee. That said, on one occasion, the border between Spenard and other was a matter of life and death. On Jan. 13, 1970, the Gold Rush Motor Lodge caught fire, off Northern Lights, between Dawson and Cheechako streets. On one side of Northern Lights was Anchorage, with more regular fire safety inspections and building code enforcement. On the other side was the GAAB, which was less inclined to engage in such detailed governance.

In April 1969, three state fire inspectors inspected the hotel and discovered a litany of hazardous conditions. The biggest sin was the alarm system, which was not an alarm system at all despite its initial appearance. Fire inspectors discovered 239 pull fire alarms, neat and tidy on the walls. Except there were no wires. They weren’t connected to anything. Management was informed, but no actual alarms were installed.

The fire spread quickly, sped by open construction areas with exposed framing. The employees tried banging on a few doors before fleeing for their own lives. Firefighters from Anchorage responded, but the hotel was on the wrong side of Northern Lights, outside their jurisdiction and in the GAAB. While some individual firefighters from the city did wade into the blaze, the commander refused to participate. He, the rest of his crew, and a fire truck watched from across the street. Five people died.

Key sources:

“Annexation is Turned Down.” Anchorage Daily Times, April 1, 1959, 1, 9.

Duke Russell. Personal communication with author. Dec. 31, 2024.

Mr. Whitekeys. Email message with author. Dec. 31, 2024.

“Note of Special Election to Vote Upon the Question of Annexing the Spenard Annexation District to the City of Anchorage.” Anchorage Daily Times, March 23, 1959, 6.

Reamer, David. An Oral & Written History of the Russian Jack Community: Past, Present, & Future. Anchorage: NeighborWorks Alaska, 2017.

“Spenard Group Will Push for Annexation.” Anchorage Daily Times, Oct. 20, 1958, 9.

“Vice Operators Cited as Foes of Annexation.” Anchorage Daily Times, May 27,1954, 7.

Wangsness, Paul H. A History of the Unification of the City of Anchorage and the Greater Anchorage Area Borough. Anchorage: Anchorage Urban Observatory, 1977.