Lights Out: Deconstructing the Northern Lights Hotel: Anchorage finally bids adieu to the abandoned eyesore.

• Author: Rohloff, Jessica
• Position: CONSTRUCTION

While some people call it an iconic landmark in midtown Anchorage, others say it was more of an iconic eyesore. Either way, after sitting empty for fifteen years, the blighted, boarded up Northern Lights Hotel is finally--finally--gone. And truth be told, it was more than just an eyesore. "It's an iconic problem," says Charles Wohlforth, a lifelong Anchorage resident, author, and columnist who has written extensively about the Northern Lights Hotel for Alaska Dispatch News. Like many other city residents, Wohlforth is glad to see it gone. "It was kind of cursed."

The building has a tragic history. In the 60s it was a motel. Then, in 1971, it went up in flames (arson, not accident), and several people died. The building also went through a series of bankruptcies. And then there were the ghosts, or reports thereof. Given the number of ghost hunter websites that claim the Northern Lights Hotel is an active source of paranormal activity--and the building's unremitting bad luck--it's easy to imagine that perhaps it was actually cursed. Or at least haunted.

Even when it was in business, the Northern Lights building wasn't exactly a showplace or central to the city's legacy. "There's no history," according to Richard Fern, lead code enforcement officer for the Municipality of Anchorage. "It wasn't a building people marveled at. At one time it was a Ramada Inn."

Cursed or not, there is definitely a consensus that it's nice to be rid of the bedeviled monstrosity. "It's been this hideous blight on the city," says Wohlforth.

Complaints, Violations Lead to Demolition Permit

Over the years, there were so many complaints made about the building that city officials were finally prompted to acquire a search warrant to investigate the Northern Lights Hotel for code violations--possibly for the first time. Fern says that entering the building was somewhat anticlimactic. Perhaps he was expecting ghosts. But what he found was a dark, dank, dirty, old building. And a huge mess. "There was water intrusion," says Fern. "Parts of the kitchen looked like someone may have been cooking there yesterday. And there were piles of broken stuff."

People were camping out in the building. The evidence was everywhere: sleeping bags, clothing, and cigarette packs. With the exception of the homeless population who seemed to have been making use of the Northern Lights Hotel, everyone agreed it had to go for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was safety.

Fire Inspector...