JCPenny building in Anchorage (46820539225)

The J. C. Penney Store in Anchorage, Alaska is a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

and part of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

retail chain J. C. Penney. The store was established in 1962 on Fifth Avenue in

downtown Anchorage Downtown Anchorage is a neighborhood in the U.S. city of Anchorage, Alaska. Considered the central business district of Anchorage, Downtown has many office buildings, cultural points of interest, shopping areas, as well as dining and nightlife ...

, making J. C. Penney one of the first national retailers to establish a presence in the state following Alaska's admission to the union as the 49th state in 1959. The store has been housed in two buildings on the same Fifth Avenue site since it opened. The store's original site, known locally as The Penney Building, was effectively destroyed during the

1964 Alaska earthquake The 1964 Alaskan earthquake, also known as the Great Alaskan earthquake and Good Friday earthquake, occurred at 5:36 PM AKST on Good Friday, March 27.

. It was one of the larger buildings in Anchorage to fall due to the shaking, rather than to ensuing

landslides Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environments, ...

. A larger store was rebuilt on the same location, which later included a parking garage on an adjacent block connected by a

skywalk A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of enclos ...

. These structures and the later Northern Commercial Company department store (which was purchased by

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, a ...

several years after it was built), formed the foundation of the 5th Avenue Mall. The building currently features a Whaling Wall mural along its west wall.

History

6th Avenue in downtown Anchorage, Alaska

J. C. Penney built its first Alaska store in 1962, located on the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and D Street in

. The company acquired the site by executing a 55-year lease with Hoyt Motors, one of Anchorage's earliest automobile dealerships. Hoyt Motors folded upon vacating the site, part of a trend in early 1960s Anchorage of dealerships changing ownership and moving out of downtown and to the Glenn Highway and

Seward Highway The Seward Highway is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska that extends from Seward to Anchorage. It was completed in 1951 and runs through the scenic Kenai Peninsula, Chugach National Forest, Turnagain Arm, and Kenai Mountains. The Seward H ...

corridors. The Penney Building in Anchorage was five stories tall and almost in size. It partially collapsed and was damaged beyond repair during the

1964 Alaska earthquake The 1964 Alaskan earthquake, also known as the Great Alaskan earthquake and Good Friday earthquake, occurred at 5:36 PM AKST on Good Friday, March 27.

Precast concrete Precast concrete is a construction product produced by casting concrete in a reusable mold or "form" which is then cured in a controlled environment, transported to the construction site and maneuvered into place; examples include precast bea ...

wall panels (one story tall and about as wide apiece) fell to the streets below during the shaking, which resulted in deaths as well as near-misses. The company continued to sell its wares, operating out of rented storefront space and its warehouse on East Fifth Avenue. The Penney Building was torn down to its foundation and was rebuilt as a three-story building, with the footprint slightly more than doubled to extend south to Sixth Avenue. The loss of parking which resulted, led the company to construct Anchorage's first public parking garage, which opened in 1968.Cole, ''North To The Future'', p. 225 The garage is connected to the store by a second-level skywalk spanning Sixth Avenue. Over the decades, the garage's ground level, known mostly as the Penney Mall, housed a variety of retail businesses, both operated by the company and by other merchants. A

People Mover A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...

"mini transit center" was located underneath the entrance ramp for many years. It was torn down when the bus stops for the Penney Mall and the federal building on Seventh Avenue were moved elsewhere. Another structure currently occupies that space. The store, along with the front portion of the Reeve Building directly across D Street, was integrated with the design of the 5th Avenue Mall when it was built in 1987. The construction of the mall led to the vacation of that block of D Street. As a result, the store's eastern entrance was reconstructed to let out directly into the mall on multiple floors.

Other J.C. Penney locations in Alaska

J. C. Penney also constructed a store in Fairbanks, which opened in 1966. It was located in Alaska's first

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

district. Several blocks of downtown Fairbanks, which previously consisted mostly of

log cabins Log most often refers to: * Trunk (botany), the stem and main wooden axis of a tree, called logs when cut ** Logging, cutting down trees for logs ** Firewood, logs used for fuel ** Lumber or timber, converted from wood logs * Logarithm, in mathem ...

, including a former red-light district, were cleared, and a block of Sixth Avenue was vacated. In its place were constructed large office and commercial buildings, with the Penney store and a state office and courthouse building (the latter building currently home to the

UAF Community and Technical College The UAF Community and Technical College (CTC), formerly Tanana Valley Campus (TVC) is located in Fairbanks, Alaska. CTC is a major academic division of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, offering classes and curriculum normally associated with ...

) the largest. Safeway and Woolworth's also built stores in this area at around the same time. The Fairbanks store, particularly its second floor, served as a refuge during another natural disaster, the 1967 flood. The company closed this store in 1998 during a nationwide round of store closings. The building is currently owned by a local furniture retailer, Sadler's Home Furnishings.

References

{{Coord, 61.21745, -149.88943, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-AK, display=title 1962 establishments in Alaska Commercial buildings completed in 1962 Buildings and structures in Anchorage, Alaska History of Anchorage, Alaska JCPenney Rebuilt buildings and structures in the United States Retail buildings in Alaska

History

Other J.C. Penney locations in Alaska

See also

References