Episode 12 with Ralph Alley

More about life in Anchorage in the days and weeks following the 9.2-magnitude earthquake March 27, 1964. A lot of freezing in the dark, suffering through aftershocks and dealing with a wrecked city. Ralph and Dick Mayo venture into the debris of Dick’s former rooming house, now pitched at a near 45-degree angle to retrieve Dick’s personal effects.

The Denali Theater at 4th Ave. and B St. sunk 10 feet into the ground as a result of the quake. Dick Mayo’s rooming house was nearby to this location. Edith and Edward Lindsay papers, University of Alaska Anchorage.

Photo courtesy Grover Wright, on Facebook

Debris from destroyed buildings, looking east down 4th Ave. from C St. on April 24, 1964.

Page from the Alaska Sportsman Magazine earthquake issue.

JCPenney building, 5th Ave., across the street from Ralph’s office building and National Guard patrol officers.

4th Ave. and C St. Buildings cleaned out and ready for demolition. Photo courtesy Grover Wright, on Facebook.

This photo and next two: downtown Anchorage street where ground failure buckled and sunk all the houses on the block. W. 5th Ave. and K St. vicinity. Photos courtesy Grover Wright, on Facebook.

Total devastation in Anchorage’s Turnagain neighborhood. Photos courtesy Grover Wright, on Facebook.

Sign in Valdez, AK with the names of the people who perished in the quake and tsunami.

Episode 10 with Ralph Alley

After he survived a plane crash in Summer 1963, Ralph traded in his Corvair coupe for a Buick Skylark convertible and left for a weekend road trip to Homer, Seward and back. He recalls the hospitality and scenery along the way. Later in the year, he learns of President Kennedy’s death at the office on a melancholy winter day. After a year marred by tragedy and disappointment, Ralph and two friends decided to throw a fabulous Christmas party.

This is about the same as Ralph’s 1962. The sound quality on this video isn’t great but the owner and the guy he’s speaking with know their history and the details about the car.

The former Edgewater Hotel, Old Seward Highway, Anchorage. Candidate John F. Kennedy stopped here in 1960. After a stint as Alaska Laborers Training School, it is now home to Remade, a non-profit organization with a thrift shop and classes on up-cycling. Photos by Clark Yerrington, 2020.

Turnagain Pass. Photo by Clark Yerrington, 2010.

Our Point of View Lodge, Kenai Lake photographed April 24, 1963. Alice and Bob Arwezon photographs, Consortium Library, UAA.

Alice Arwezon at the junction of the Sterling and Seward Highways (Tern Lake) in 1963.

The old general store in Cooper Landing is now part of a museum. Photo by Clark Yerrington, 2016.

Liquor store in Moose Pass. Photo by Clark Yerrington, 2008.

Fishing boats in Ninilchik, 1960s. Harry and Norma Hoyt family papers, Consortium Library, UAA.

Ninilchik Village with the Russian Orthodox church on top of the hill behind. Francis J. Huber slides, Consortium Library, UAA.

Ninilchik church. Photo by Clark Yerrington, 2009.

Stacked stones on the beach, Homer Spit with the top of the Salty Dawg Saloon behind. Photo by Clark Yerrington, 2007.

Homer Spit beach. Photo by Clark Yerrington, 2009.

Homer Spit and mountains beyond on the other side of Kachemak Bay. Photo by Clark Yerrington, 2014.

The Bay View Inn, on the hill on the way down into Homer had quaint 1950s rooms and a panoramic view. Photo by Clark Yerrington, 2009.

Homer cabin. Photo by Clark Yerrington, 2009.

Seward, AK in 1960. Charles Cassata photographs, Alaska Historical Society Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.

House with a Mission style gable roof treatment, downtown Seward. Photo by Clark Yerrington, 2008.

A page from Ralph’s photo album from the 1963 Christmas party at his Anchorage 4th Ave. apartment.

Episode 9 with Ralph Alley

The previous episode, #8 was a cliff hanger with the plane carrying Ralph and three others about to crash land. In this episode we find out what happened next.

The end of the Homer Spit and Kachemak Bay in 1958. Photo from Steve McCutcheon Collection, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center.

The main part of Homer seen on approach in 1954. Photo from Arnold Granville Photographs at UAF.

This incredibly pristine view of land east of Homer and Kachemak Bay beyond was taken from East Skyline Dr. in 1958. Photo from Steve McCutcheon Collection, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center.

Episode 8 with Ralph Alley

Alaska Architect Ralph Alley gets admonished at work in 1962 for freelancing on houses, and keeps his head down henceforth. Can he avoid a lot bigger trouble a few months later?

“Standard cumulus activity.” Photo by Clark Yerrington.

The Hill Building, W. 6th Ave. and G Street, downtown Anchorage. Photographed the day after the 1964 earthquake. Photo from John Cerutti Slide Collection.

4th Avenue Theater, downtown Anchorage. The Goonies is on the marquee so it must be 1985. The Bob Hamilton designed penthouse apartment on the west side of the original building’s roof. Photo by Jet Lowe, from Library of Congress.

Early ‘60s on the Homer Spit. Photo from Christine M. McClain Papers.

Beluga Lake, Homer Airport and Homer Spit from East Skyline Drive, Homer, AK. Photo by Clark Yerrington, 2011.

Winter beach walk, Homer Spit, 2011. Photo by Clark Yerrington.

Episode 7 with Ralph Alley

Ralph’s career starts to flourish as he becomes intimate with 1960s Anchorage people and places. He speaks about explosive growth of the city and registration exams.

Evangeline Atwood at home in Turnagain in 1954. Photo from Ward Wells Collection.

Episode 6 with Ralph Alley

In this episode of recollections, Ralph sticks closer to home, getting to know Anchorage and key local people. We learn about the design response to the beautiful wilderness setting [or, lack of same] and how that led to present-day conditions.

Larson and Wendler building at 4th and I St. in Summer 1917. P.S. Hunt photo.

Early 1980s look at the building when it was still at its original site. Henry S. Kaiser, Jr. Papers, University of Alaska Anchorage, Archives and Special Collections.

Club 25 building [current headquarters of Fur Rendezvous]. 4th Ave. and D St., May 17, 2020. Photo by Clark Yerrington.

Corner turret and bronze statue of Balto. May 17, 2020. Photo by Clark Yerrington.

A 1960s “Cob Job” building at 6th Ave. and A St. has been revived as an experimental and special projects arm of the Anchorage Museum.

Anchorage Museum Seed Lab.

Turnagain Blvd., May 17, 2020. Still doesn’t impress much; pleasant enough, I suppose. Photo by Clark Yerrington.

Bird House Bar, Bird Creek, Alaska, 1979. Photo courtesy Ken Goldberg, on Flickr.

Bird House, interior detail, August 1984.

Chick-N-Burger Restaurant, Anchorage, 1970s. Photo courtesy Stephen Cysewski.

45 years of progress at the former Chick-N-Burger site on the Old Seward Highway.

Episode 5 with Ralph Alley

Even in the ‘50s/’60s 4th Avenue had a good side and bad side. Maybe it was always so? Ralph Alley and his friend Frank ventured into a bar on the bad end in 1962. Also in this episode — Denali flightseeing, a Hofbrau Halloween and sleeping through the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Bars and bars and more bars! Looking east on 4th Ave. around 1941. Two decades before Ralph lived here, the pattern had been set. Photo from Eleanor Louise Wedge papers.

Same general area, opposite side of the street in 1956. Photo from AMRC, Ward Wells Collection.

The last days of the Scandinavian Club Bar [1984]. Rear view from the alley between 4th and 5th, just east of C St. looking north. Just before the bar and the rest of the block were razed for the 5th Ave. Mall parking garage. Photo from Sam McClain papers.

President Eisenhower hurtles down 5th Ave. in 1960. Loussac Sogn Building that included the offices of Manley & Mayer Architects on the right. Photo from Jim Ruotsala photographs.

Denali view from near the Eielson Visitors Center inside the park. Unknown vintage, guessing 1970s. Photo from Francis J. Huber slides.

Episode 4 with Ralph Alley

The vastness and raw beauty of Alaska unfold through the windows of small and really small airplanes in this early 1960s-based episode. After a peaceful housesitting gig ends, Ralph gets his own place — taking over a 4th Avenue apartment from his departing friends, the Gibboneys. Helping to furnish the new digs are a stereo and TV, bought from a colleague and retrieved on a road trip to Willow. 4th Avenue is a pleasant place to live at the time with a bustling scene.

Aerial view of Dillingham, 1955. Photo from McCutcheon Collection, Anchorage Museum.

Sled dog races, Dillingham, AK, 1959.

Kenai, AK from the air in 1965. Photo from University of Alaska Anchorage, Consortium Library, Archives and Special Collections.

Breakup on Lake George. Photo from Stewart’s Photo Shop slide collection.

Iceberg at Lake George, left behind after the lake “dump”. Photo from Stewart’s Photo Shop slide collection.

The lake after the annual drain. Photo from Stewart’s Photo Shop slide collection.

Hofbrau Restaurant on 4th Ave., 1958. Photo from Ward Wells collection.

Hofbrau Restaurant, 1958. Photo from Ward Wells collection.

Hewitt’s Drug Store building in the 1930s. Looking northeast at the NE corner of 4th Ave. and E Street. The drug/photo store on the corner and what would later be the Cheechako Bar on the right hand side on 4th. The building was destroyed in the 1964 earthquake.

Episode 3 with Ralph Alley

In this episode, Ralph revisits a 1955 trip to an AIA event in Washington, DC. Then, more stories from his first few months in Alaska, including a boat trip from Whittier to Valdez in 1960.

President Eisenhower in a parade in downtown Anchorage in 1960. The log cabin with the polar bear [seen first at 0:35] is the Jonas Brothers store that was on the same block as Ralph’s boarding house.

Sybil Moholy-Nagy in a photo portrait by her husband, Laszlo.

Newly completed house addition, Valdez, Alaska, 1955. Photo from University of Alaska Fairbanks archives.

1958.

Early 20th century evening street scene, Valdez, Alaska. P.S. Hunt photo, University of Alaska Fairbanks archives.

World War II era street scene, Valdez, Alaska.

Early 20th century Victorian church, abandoned at Old Valdez townsite in 1969.

Today there are only remnants of the original town of Valdez. A few of the buildings were relocated to the new townsite, nearby on higher ground after the 1964 earthquake. Photo by Clark Yerrington, 2014.

Charles Blomfield [front] and some of his neighbors outside their Bootlegger Cove condo building, downtown Anchorage, 2009. Photo by Clark Yerrington.

Additional links related to the episode…

Charles Warren Callister, Architect [who Ralph mentions as a strong influence] is featured in this 2004 San Francisco Chronicle article where he discusses contextualism and his design approach. Callister was profiled in Architectural Digest Magazine in 1981. Callister’s Red Barn House [a remodel] is shown at Curbed SF in 2009 when it sold for an astronomical sum.

Photos of ‘50s/’60s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parades including one of Hopalong Cassidy in 1955.

Unlike Callister [information about whom is relatively scarce] there is plenty in print and online about Greene and Greene and their projects. This article about the Thorsen House gets into an interesting forensic investigation.

2018 Metropolis Magazine article commemorating the Paul Rudolph centennial.

Wassily Sommer painting of three nudes [‘50s/’60s vintage?] and limited biographical info.

Episode 1 with Ralph Alley

We pick up the thread upon Ralph’s arrival in Anchorage in 1959. It wasn’t long before he was designing his first house in Anchorage. This led him [more quickly than he wanted] to other work and establishing his methods and approach to designing for Alaska.

First house by Ralph Alley in Alaska, Anchorage Hillside. Shown in 2004 — by then, the house had been repainted with the new color palette bearing little resemblance to the original.

House on Stanford Dr. in 2016. The entry is a recent addition; otherwise the house still looks about like it did upon completion in 1960.

We’re planning to do as many episodes, more or less weekly as necessary to cover Ralph’s thirty years in Alaska. This first one was technologically challenging for a couple of non-audio engineers, so kindly ignore the poltergeists on the recording and trust that we’ll figure out how to get this aspect corrected in the future! Enjoy!