in
Anchorage, United States
Category:
Attraction
1 views 
0 shares 
0 comments
set bookmark!
Created/changed by:
System
Address details
320 W 5th Ave, Anchorage, AK 99501, USA
Print route »
Phone & WWW
Business hours
Info
Department store chain J. C. Penney was one of a handful of national retailers to establish a presence in the U.S. state of Alaska in the years immediately following Alaska's joining the union as the 49th state in 1959. The company opened a store on Fifth Avenue in downtown Anchorage, locally dubbed The Penney Building, in 1962. This particular building was destroyed during the 1964 Alaska earthquake, one of the larger buildings in Anchorage to fall due to the shaking, as opposed to being due to landslides. A larger store was rebuilt on the same location, which later included a parking garage on an adjacent block connected by a skywalk. These structures and the later Northern Commercial Company department store (which was purchased by Nordstrom 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.
