This neighborhood was created in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s in response to the wartime build-up and ongoing need for housing. To encourage farming, many lots were larger here than in Downtown or Government Hill.
To help spur development of new housing, local contractor Roland Stock funded the first Federal Housing Administration guaranteed loan program. This was in support of the Army Housing Association, a cooperative formed by Stock and Army service men and their families who had recently been stationed in Anchorage.
These houses were built in what was known as the Block 13 area, which begins along “A” Street and includes 10th and 11th Avenues continuing east to Cordova Street. But the Army men and their families were short-lived in the ensuing few months; as World War II escalated, they were whisked away in fear that this area would be invaded losing everything they had worked so hard for.
Of course, Anchorage was never invaded. However devastation did come to this small neighborhood in the form of the 1964 earthquake. Many lives were lost further west along the Cook Inlet, where homes had been built on unstable Cook Inlet Clay.
But South Addition was also home to happier historical events. The neighborhood hosted Anchorage’s first airstrip, now known as the Delaney Park Strip, where pioneer aviator Russel Merrill flew his inaugural flight in “Anchorage No. 1.”
For additional information on this neighborhood, see the South Addition Historic Context Statement & Building Survey.
