4th Avenue Theatre
630 W. 4th Avenue,
Anchorage,
AK
99501
630 W. 4th Avenue,
Anchorage,
AK
99501
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Newspaper article from 4-25-17:
“Historic Anchorage Theater Deserves State Protection, Advocates Say”
I had the pleasure of managing this theater in the early 80’s (1981-2ish). We had so much fun here. One of the most beautiful buildings. The Art Deco style and the incredible bas relief on the walls were something to remember and I hope this place finds itself alive again. When I worked there it was operated by Wometco-Lathrop. I’m not sure how much longer it stayed in operation. My girlfriend at the time lived in Houston so I decided to head south and regretted that decision to this day. While I have lived in other places it seems now I’m kind of stuck here in Texas. I miss you Alaska!
The Municipality of Anchorage is doing nothing with this beautiful, old theater!
Between 7-8 years ago, there was a plan between the municipality and a private company to refurbish the theater, using the downstairs for businesses of some kind and the upper floors for residences, but after a long process to get to that point, at the last hour a councilwoman threw a monkey wrench in the plan by deciding she didn’t think the municipality should be involved in any funding after-all.
The private company basically told the municipality to take a hike, refusing to work with it anymore because it was “unreliable.” There’s been no public discussion of the theater since. It currently is doing what it’s been doing for years now, just sitting, boarded up and rotting. What a travesty!
I saw many movies here as a kid in the ‘80s – Goonies, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Kurosawa’s Ran. Beautiful walls with twinkling stars and inlaid images of gold miners.
Great photos Brad and Don.
From the 1940s a photo of the 4th Avenue Theatre in Anchorage.
This photograph of the 4th Avenue Theater was taken in July, 2010.
From the 1950s a photo postcard view of the 4th Avenue Theater in Anchorage.
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NICE!
This article from June 15th 2009 doesn’t bode well for the theatre. It may well be lost or significantly altered. The owner has not cooperated in efforts to save and restore the theatre.
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What a neat-looking theatre…both inside and out. Too bad it closed.
Here is an undated interior photo:
http://tinyurl.com/lq3yob
Here is a 1985 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/leenqk
Here is a painting of the 4th Avenue. The view is supposed to be of the opening in 1947.
http://tinyurl.com/7uv2vr
While congress (not Palin)killed that bridge to nowhere, Palin had no problem taking all of the money and applying it elsewhere. Total hypocrisy, but this is cinema treasures so I won’t go any further with that.
As I’ve mentioned above, Alaska, while having some of the world’s most spectacular natural beauty, seems to have a great dearth of architecturally significant buildings. They should do everything they can to preserve what little they have and this theater should be saved.
Maybe Palin can get an earmark to save this theater!
A 2008 view of the 4th Avenue Theater in Anchorage here and here. Enlarged views here and here.
So, how did the vote go? Will it be saved? Alaska has an enviable wealth of natural beauty. It would be an incerdible shame to see them lose one of the few man made wonders. I was in Alaska for a week last year and the capitol building in Juneau was rather hideous. Other than some buildings form the gold rush era there isn’t much “modern” architecture in Alaska worth saving. This theater appears to be one of the special ones.
Wonderful Alaskan sunset photo with the lighted 4th Avenue marquee.
Sunset in Alaska:
http://tinyurl.com/2lc9l7
The interior decoration of the 4th Avenue was done by Heinsbergen.
If you look at the 1940s photo of the mezzanine, you will notice on the right a wall over the staircase which is covered in square metal-leafed bas relief panels, depicting wildlife. Some of these patterns were also cast and installed in another Heinsbergen-decorated theatre, the Garden (1949) in San Jose, CA. The wildlife panels were in a single row atop the wall which backed the concession counter.
The Garden Theatre remained very well preserved through its 1988 closing. In 1989, the Garden was gutted and turned into an office and retail building. The abovementioned relief panels were removed, along with many other decorative features, prior to the building’s conversion. Many features now appear in a couple of other Bay Area theatres, but I have yet to see the wildlife relief panels displayed anywhere.
The Garden’s exterior remains largely intact, in fact the vertical sign had its neon restored just this past summer.
Credit the photographer, but it is an interesting building.
ken mc: Your flickr color photo posted on 2/4/06 was beautiful.
In the 1961 photo I’m sure the Woolworth store is long gone though the name brings back many wonderful memories.