Haunted Places in Anchorage: 8 to Visit and 3 Legends to Know
A frontier hotel where guests sign a ghost log, a locked restroom stall, a theater where women say they are pushed on the stairs and a breakfast cafe with a sad true story. Here is haunted Anchorage, with what is true and what is legend.
Anchorage is young for a city, born as a railroad tent camp at Ship Creek in 1915, and its ghost stories are young too: a police chief shot in an alley in 1921, a car bomb in 1976, and buildings that went up after the 1964 earthquake. We have checked each place below against current sources. Seven are in the city and one, Begich Towers in Whittier, is an easy day trip down the Seward Highway. Three famous stories belong to places you cannot visit, and we explain those at the end.
Where to look The second-floor hall, Rooms 215 and 217, Room 202, the lobby fireplace
Reported ghosts Police Chief John J. "Black Jack" Sturgus; ghostly children; a jilted bride; a woman in white
Visiting A working hotel that takes overnight guests
The Historic Anchorage Hotel is the city’s only historic hotel on the National Register, a 26-room boutique hotel at 4th Avenue and E Street. It is the 1936 annex of the original 1916 Anchorage Hotel, the frontier town’s finest place to stay, where Warren Harding, Will Rogers and Wiley Post and painter Sydney Laurence all slept. The annex declined after the original was demolished and was revived under its old name in 1989.
The hotel calls itself the most haunted in Anchorage and keeps a ghost log at the front desk. Guests write of children giggling in empty halls, a small girl in a closet, faucets and TVs switching on in Rooms 215 and 217, and a woman in white. Many link the activity to Police Chief John “Black Jack” Sturgus, shot steps away in 1921 in a case never solved.
What investigators report
The hotel’s own site says activity is reported most in the quiet early morning hours and suggests asking the front desk which rooms have had recent activity; a guest log entry described tapping at the door of room 202.
Address University of Alaska Anchorage, 2533 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508
Where to look The lobby staircase, the accessible restroom, the stage and catwalk
Reported ghosts A woman in white, a teenage boy, children and a man who pushes women
Visiting Open during public performances and events
Tours UAA has held occasional ghost tours of the building, first in October 2023
Ghost hunting No public investigations
The 910-seat Wendy Williamson Auditorium on the UAA campus opened in 1972 and is named for the late professor John Wendell ‘Wendy’ Williamson. Money ran out during construction, the plans were cut back, and the building was left with an elevator shaft and a catwalk that lead nowhere. It hosts concerts, comedy and the Miss Alaska pageant.
Staff told the Anchorage Daily News and the student paper, The Northern Light, about lights bursting, props flying, a piano that plays itself and a restroom door held shut from the other side. A woman in white has been seen in freshly waxed floors and, the staff say, in a group photo. The best-known claim is that women with long dark hair are pushed on the lobby stairs. UAA ran its first ghost tours of the building in 2023.
Haunted Rooms tip: Buy a ticket to any evening show, arrive early and take the left lobby staircase.
Where to look The kitchen and restroom sinks after closing
Reported ghosts Said to be Muriel Pfeil, killed by a car bomb across the street in 1976
Visiting A working cafe, open to everyone
Tours Ghost Tours of Anchorage walking tours meet here
Hours and season Daily, 7 AM to 3 PM
Ghost hunting No
Snow City Cafe is one of downtown Anchorage’s busiest breakfast spots, at 4th Avenue and L Street. The building once held the city’s first travel agency, run by Muriel Pfeil. On September 30, 1976, she was killed when a bomb exploded under the hood of her car in the parking lot across the street. Her ex-husband was the only suspect, but no one was ever charged with her death.
On the Ghost Tours of Anchorage, which meet at the cafe, guides tell of closing staff who find taps running in the kitchen and restroom and blame ‘Ms. Muriel’. Staff have described her as friendly. It is a real and unsolved killing, so the story deserves to be told with care; the cafe itself is a bright, cheerful place to eat.
What investigators report
Ghost tour guides say the spirit staff call Ms. Muriel is blamed for playing with the sink water in the kitchen and bathroom at night, and a longtime closer would scold her by name.
Where to look A basement women's restroom, where one stall is kept locked
Reported ghosts A young woman in white said to have taken her life in the restroom
Visiting A working hotel that takes overnight guests
Hotel Captain Cook is Anchorage’s landmark downtown hotel, three tall towers on West 5th Avenue built by Walter J. Hickel, the developer who went on to be Alaska’s governor, after the 1964 earthquake. It is still family owned, with fine dining at the Crow’s Nest on the top floor, an athletic club and a run of shops in its arcade.
Its ghost story is small and strange. Staff and guests describe a young woman in a white dress who is said to have taken her life in a women’s restroom years ago. Lights switch on and off and the stall door opens and closes by itself, and according to local reporting the last stall on the left has been bolted shut for years. We found no record of the death behind the story.
Haunted Rooms tip: Have a drink in the Crow’s Nest for the view over Cook Inlet, then look for that bolted stall.
Reported ghosts A whistling man, heavy footsteps, a hungry ghost in a kitchen
Visiting A residential condominium; public offices inside, but the homes and corridors are private
Ghost hunting No; this is where people live
Whittier’s 14-story tower was built by the Army between 1953 and 1957 as the Hodge Building, and renamed in 1972 for Congressman Nick Begich, who vanished in a plane over Alaska that year. Most of the town’s roughly 270 people live inside, with a post office, store, church, police station and clinic under the same roof and a tunnel to the school. The only road in is a single-lane tunnel that closes at night.
Residents have told the Anchorage Daily News that the building has ghosts they simply live with: a man who whistles as he walks the halls, another with a heavy step that echoes through the corridors, and a hungry spirit that rattled around the city manager’s kitchen until he reached for his gun. Nobody claims to know who they are, and staff say they have never hurt anyone.
Haunted Rooms tip: It is a private home for most of Whittier, so admire it from outside, or book one of the condo rentals inside for a night in the town under one roof.
Reported ghosts Oscar Anderson, who loved the house 'too much to ever leave it'
Visiting Guided tours in summer; the house sits in Elderberry Park at the west end of downtown
Tours Guided house tours with a historian, summer season
Ghost hunting No
Swedish butcher Oscar Anderson arrived at the Ship Creek tent camp in 1915 and built this small bungalow at the edge of the new townsite that year; it is said to be the first frame house finished in Anchorage. He lived here with his family for nearly 60 years. After the family left in 1974 the house was given to the city, moved a short way into Elderberry Park and opened as a museum in 1982.
His widow said Oscar loved the house too much to ever leave it. According to the historian Phyllis Downing Carlson, a young couple who bought the house after he died heard noises upstairs, and one morning found a chest pushed across the door of his old room. Senior Voice tells these as stories, not proven events, and that is how to take them.
Haunted Rooms tip: Visit on a summer guided tour, then walk the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail from Elderberry Park at sunset.
Where to look The old sections near the Bagoy gate at 7th and Cordova
Reported ghosts Whispers and movement reported by night visitors (tour company claims)
Visiting Open municipal cemetery; no pets
Tours Free summer history tours: the John Bagoy Solstice Tour and Stories at the Cemetery
Ghost hunting No; please treat it as a working cemetery
Anchorage’s oldest cemetery was set aside in 1915 as part of the original townsite and covers about 22 acres between downtown and Fairview, with more than 12,500 graves. It is on the National Register. Painter Sydney Laurence, first mayor Leopold David, Governor Walter Hickel and the Arctic survivor Ada Blackjack are buried here, and each summer actors in costume tell the stories of early residents at their graves.
One of those characters has been Police Chief John ‘Black Jack’ Sturgus, shot in a downtown alley in 1921 in a case never solved, whose ghost is linked to the Historic Anchorage Hotel. A local ghost tour company says visitors hear names whispered and that night security has seen movement among the stones; we found no other report. Come for the real stories, which are better.
Haunted Rooms tip: Go to the free John Bagoy Solstice Tour in June or Stories at the Cemetery in summer; park on Cordova Street, not inside.
Address 1020 West 12th Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501
Where to look The ground floor, the hallways and the elevator
Reported ghosts A laughing little girl; a repairman said to ride the elevator
Visiting A working hotel that takes overnight guests
The Inlet Tower is a tall striped high-rise on West 12th Avenue, on the edge of downtown Anchorage near the Delaney Park Strip, with suites and kitchenettes that make it popular with longer-stay visitors and families. On a clear day the upper floors look across Cook Inlet to the mountains.
Its stories are told by staff and repeated by guests. A little girl is heard laughing as she runs and plays on the ground floor, and a man, said to be a repairman killed in an elevator accident, rides the elevator up and down or walks in through the front entrance and vanishes. Local reporting notes there are no official records of either death.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a high floor facing the inlet; the ghost stories are on the ground floor, the views are up top.
These places appear in older lists of haunted spots. We keep them here so you know the facts before you go, but you cannot (or should not) visit them.
4th Avenue Theatre, Anchorage
Cap Lathrop’s grand art deco cinema opened in 1947 after a wartime pause. Former staff described cold spots, shadowy figures in the balcony and a presence in the projection booth, and a woman was said to appear in the mirrors by the restrooms. The theater was demolished in late 2022, so there is nothing left to visit.
West High School auditorium, Anchorage
Theater teacher David Block told the Anchorage Daily News in 2012 that enough people have seen a lady in white in the auditorium, backstage and basement halls that he has to believe something is going on, and a former janitor is said to sweep the lobby. It is a working public high school, so you can only see the auditorium at public performances.
Badarka Road, Chugiak
The legend says a little girl died in an axe accident in the woods here and her grieving father sat with her until he froze, and that at 3:30 AM you can see him cradling her by the road. We found no record of any such deaths, and the story appears only in online lists. It is a residential road: do not stop, park or trespass to look for them.
Visited one of these places? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from visitors and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your visit. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most haunted place in Anchorage?
The Historic Anchorage Hotel, which calls itself the most haunted hotel in the city and keeps a ghost log at the front desk. Many guests link its stories to Police Chief John ‘Black Jack’ Sturgus, shot nearby in 1921 in a case never solved.
Are there ghost tours in Anchorage?
Yes. Ghost Tours of Anchorage runs walking tours of downtown in the summer, meeting at the Snow City Cafe, with stops that include the Hotel Captain Cook and the Historic Anchorage Hotel.
Is the Hotel Captain Cook haunted?
Staff and guests describe a young woman in white in a downstairs women’s restroom, and local reporting says one stall has been bolted shut for years. The story is often tied to a death in the 1970s, but we found no record that confirms it.
Is the Wendy Williamson Auditorium haunted?
It has the most detailed ghost stories in Anchorage, told by its own staff: lights bursting, a piano playing itself, and women with long dark hair pushed on the lobby stairs. UAA ran its first ghost tours of the building in 2023.
Can you still visit the 4th Avenue Theatre?
No. Anchorage’s famous art deco theater, said to be haunted by a projectionist and a woman in its mirrors, was demolished in late 2022.
Sources and how we research
Every place in this guide is checked against its official website, historic register listings and news coverage, and we confirm whether it is open, closed, private or gone before we list it. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and local historians tell them; we say so where records contradict a story. Each place shows how many independent sources we checked it against; our own Haunted Rooms pages are not counted.
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team are paranormal researchers who write about historic haunted places across the United States. We research every place in our guides using official sites, historic registers, local archives and news coverage, and we report ghost stories as the stories they are. We review each guide regularly so you are not sent to a place that has closed, changed hands or banned visitors. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
