The description and property data below may have been provided by a third party, the homeowner or public records. We are continuously working to improve the accessibility of our web experience for everyone, and we welcome feedback and accommodation requests. Next to the school and towers is the indoor playground (pictured), which protects kids from the elements year-round. This means that although there is a pervasive smell of marijuana in Begich Towers, the police can do little about it. May 23, 2021 / 9:54 AM ", "I just want them to know it's just a unique, beautiful place in its own way," he said. But thriving harbor industriesfreight, fishing, tourismdont seem to translate into growth for the city. and Anchorage real estate Shuford, originally from North Carolina, now lives on the 12th floor of what some describe as the "Wilderness Tower." There are pleasant touches (such as the exteriors newer blue, cream, and peach paint scheme) that try to establish a playful identity for the formerly drab Hodge Building. Most condos have extensively updated and remodeled since then. Ratings are on scale of 1 (below average) and to 10 (above average) and can include test scores, college readiness, academic progress, advanced courses, equity, discipline and attendance data. [ Before the tunnel conversion began, BTI condos sold for as little as $9,000. One unique feature, there is a pedestrian tunnel linking the complex to the . 301, begich towers condominiums, as shown on the floor plans filed in the office of the recorder of the anchorage recording district, third judicial district, state of alaska, under plat number w74-1, and as identified in the declaration recorded march 26, 1974, book 2, page 571, and in any Electric Sunroof, Head Up Display & Other Features That Make The All New Hot & Techy Brezza A Hit. Behind Whittiers everyday peculiarities is a community thoroughly circumscribed by geography, architecture, and weather. Mayor Lester Lunceford recently moved from Whittier to Anchorage; his is a part-time, unpaid position, so he commutes into town when he can. The population of the city is over 200 people. BTI is beginning to show its age. the property described as unit 104, begich towers condominiums, as shown on the floor plans filed in the office of the recorder of the anchorage recording district, third judicial district, state of alaska, under plat number "'74-1, and as identified in the declaration recorded march 26, 1974, book 2, page 571, and in any Instead, on the edge of town, there stands a 14-story building called Begich Towers a former Army barracks, resembling an aging hotel, where most of the town's 200 residents live. The impressive engineering behind the 14-story Hodge Building was on display as its three separate towers swayed but miraculously did not collapse. Pastor Kevin is a Southern Baptist, but most of his parishioners are Catholic immigrants from the Pacific Islands. '. booj. And for good reason: Sustained winds of sixty miles per hour are not uncommon. Brokered And Advertised By: Keller Williams Realty Alaska Group Listing Agent: Michael Schwartz. Despite the ambitious plan, these buildings were the only two to be built, and they were used by the US Army until the early 1960s; the Buckner Building has been abandoned since 1966.[3]. The Hodge Building was constructed as three separate towers connected by metal plates. ActiveRain, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, Whittier is relatively close to Anchorage, Alaskabut it is still difficult to access. On Good Friday in March of 1964, the second most powerful earthquake in recorded history buckled the floor underneath Prince William Sound, registering a whopping 9.2 magnitude on the Richter scale. A supply barge comes into town once a week, but most of the workers who unload the freight commute from Anchorage. The Buckner Building housed, among other things, a bowling alley, a movie theater, a shooting range, a barbershop, and a six-cell jail. The Alaska Railroad Corporation is the majority landowner in Whittier, but it doesnt pay property taxes, and it employs few residents. There's a post office, a notary, even a church, all just an elevator's ride away. Home Details for 401 Begich Towers Property Information Year Built Year Built: 1940 LGBTQ Local Legal Protections Homes for Rent Near 401 Begich Towers Off Market Homes Near 401 Begich Towers 401 Begich Towers, Whittier, AK 99693 is a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 740 sqft property built in 1940. Surprisingly, there are not many residential buildings in this town. the old jail, complete with bars on both bedroom doors, steel bunks hanging from the wall, three authentic bullet holes in the walls and window sill, plus a front view of the city, small boat harbor, and Prince William Sound. As of 2015, only one of the two boilers serving Begich Towers was functional, but it experienced major maintenance-related issues almost daily. In 1974, the large, extraordinarily secure building became a large condominium complex, ideally suited to shield residents from the harsh Alaskan climate. The tower was built in the 1950s and features elevators. Begich Towers is essentially a fully functional condo that is equipped to take care of most of the residents needs in-house. WATCH: [Indie Alaska]I am a Whittier Teacher. Charming small towns like Whittier are one of many reasons that Alaska is a place that every seasoned traveler must visit at least once. When the sun returns to the sky, residents pour out of BTI in shorts and T-shirts. Whittier started out in the mid-1950s as a military outpost. The name of the 14-floor building is The Begich Tower which is the residence for nearly the entire population of the city. The town of Whittier is situated on the western end of the Prince William Sound, about 75 miles southeast of Anchorage and somewhat centrally located on the southern coast of Alaska. The Begich Towers Condominium is a building in the small town of Whittier, Alaska. "You know, you get to thinking, Oh man, the tunnel's the only way out. There is also a small Baptist church, two floors of bed and breakfast daily rentals, a conference room, and an indoor playground at the school. Come experience our Historical two and a half mile (one way) tunnel. Your browser is not currently supported. Google India Employee Gets Laid Off After Earning 'Star Performer' Award, Asks 'Why Me? It looks depressing.' In addition, we feature unusual hotels and restaurants. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); UnusualPlaces.org is your guide to quirky, weird and beautiful places to visit around the world. One Begich Towers resident who works as a teacher at the local school stated that life in Begich Towers is actually more akin to life in a big city than a remote small town. "Yeah, it is known as the weirdest city in Alaska," said her husband, Dave Dickason, who is Whittier's Mayor. Seward Highway south to Portage Road, go east to, Free Community and Demographic Reports for Whittier, Access detailed information on Whittier Community School, Home Prices in Anchorage Alaska for March 2018, Home Prices in Anchorage Alaska for February 2018, Home Prices in Anchorage Alaska for November 2017, View all Activerain Blog Posts By Katrina Benton. Grounds are kept in excellent condition. The building was designed in 1953 to host the headquarters of the US Army Corps of Engineers. Each room has a big-screen TV, WiFi, and sweeping views of Alaska. the property described as unit no. Like everyone who lives on the harbor-facing side of Begich Towers, June keeps a pair of binoculars on her windowsill. Orlet us know your school story in the comments section below and share this info with your friends and family, and keep readingIndiatimes.comfor the latest trending news. Light and bright apartment style condos you would expect to find for sale in the Begich Towers Condos in Whittier AK are going to range between 511 and 1827 square feet. From small staff to the owner, all live together in this building where all the facilities like a police station, provision store, laundry, church and hospitals are located under one roof. The drive through tunnel closes every night at 10:30 pm. Begich Towers was completed in 1957 as a Cold War outpost for the U.S. Army, which then abandoned the facility by the mid-1960s. This page was last edited on 21 December 2022, at 18:47. The structure is notable for being the residence for nearly the entire population of the city as well as containing many of its public facilities. Those who stayed behind occupied the first four floors of the Hodge Building; other floors remained unoccupied. As the closest town to the disaster, Whittier was an important base camp for authorities and clean-up crews, and its rail barges shipped the hazardous material out of Alaska. The first floor of the building had almost everything a city needs to function. Also, visit our Weird Attractions, Whittier, Alaska: One Building Houses A Whole Town, Crater of Diamonds: A Wealth of Buried Gems in Arkansas, A little piece of London in Arizona Lake Havasu Citys London Bridge, Devon Island: Canadas Remote Martian Island, Southern Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp: Floridas Mystical Retreat. After the tunnel conversion, the trip to drive through cost travelers just $12. It can shatter windshields and rip your car doors right off. 3 Bedroom 1 Bath condo for sale in the historical Begich Towers located in Whittier, Alaska. The Begich Towers, in Whittier, Alaska, built by the military during the Cold War as a no-frills barracks, is now home to the majority of the isolated town's 300 or so residents. In 1998 reconstruction began to convert the rail-only Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnelfor dual-use, allowing vehicular access as well. Begich Towers is nearly earthquake and fire-proof. Most Whittier residents love the tiny towns remote status. If you wish to report an issue or seek an accommodation, please, 442-H New York Standard Operating Procedures. A pot bust on the tenth floor led to the police donating hydroponic equipment to Whittiers school for a vegetable garden, which Joey Lipscomb oversaw through eighth grade. In 1948 construction began in Whittier on the first of two enormous concrete structures. Some people manage to carve out comfortable lives for themselves within this extreme environment, and looking out over Whittier harbor at dawn, or on a snowy day while a neighbor fed the fat crows perched on his windowsill, it wasnt so hard to imagine why someone might choose the limitations of a place like Whittier over the limitations of life in a big city down in the Lower 48. There are benefits to living in the Begich Towers. Wildlife Photographer Captures Rare Photo Of Three-Headed Cheetah, What's The Story Behind It? Its a concrete building, he said. the heat, electricity, exterior and groundsmaintenance, garbage service, water and sewer service, and snow removal. June Miller runs June's Whittier Condo Suites, a bed and breakfast on the fourteenth and fifteenth floors of Begich Towers. Private Walking Tour in Whittier AK. The building has Internet access and cable, and most rooms have WiFi. Still, he has convinced some of them to be baptized again; the harbor is too cold, so he sets up a large inflatable pool in the middle of the church room. One benefit of living at BTI is that kids dont need jackets when they go to school in the winter because the towns school was built immediately behind Begich Towers; it connects to the base of the west tower via an underground tunnel, which shields the kids from Whittiers extreme winter weather. The Begich Towers Condominium is a building in the small city of Whittier, Alaska. Valentines Day Gifting Stressing You Out? Photo via California Sunday Magazine Most in BTI have binoculars sitting by the window. In 1972, the building was renamed Begich Towers Condominium, in memory of Nick Begich, a Congressman from Alaska who disappeared in the area and is presumed to have died in a plane crash. Today the asking price has risen to $35,000. With 200 inches of rain and 250 inches of snowfall annually, only the dedicated stay in Whittier through the winter months. 2023 ActiveRain, Inc. All Rights Reserved :) homeFair Housing: Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, Real Estate Agent with Come Home Inc License #16564, Affordable Condos with Unobstructed Views, Depending upon placement within the towers, each unit has an unobstructed view of the. These Are The 13 Families In The World That Apparently Control Everything - From Politics To Terrorism, After Viral Shower Selfie, R Madhavan's New Look Is Making Women Go Weak In Their Knees Again. The state of Alaska is rugged and beautiful beyond compare. It was named the Hodge Building in memory of Colonel William Walter Hodge, commander of the 93rd Engineer Regiment of Alcan Highway. LGBTQ Legal Protections updated by Movement Advancement Project, Trulia is a registered Trademark of Zillow, Inc. Zillow, Inc. holds real estate brokerage, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Zillow Group is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for individuals with disabilities. / CBS News. A visitor recounted a conversation with the resident volunteer firefighter when apainfully loud fire alarm went off inside BTI. On our first night in town, a small earthquake hit, but we thought it was just another gust of wind rattling the windowpanes. They also had a lot of civil rights actions here [in Alaska] in the forties; the Natives werent even allowed to sit in the movie theater with white people. The purpose of the bomb-proof mid-centuryHodge Building was to support a remote logistics station in Whittier, Alaska. Over 200 people live in this apartment and get every facility inside the building. "There's not a lot of, you know, single people in their twenties and thirties here I mean, I don't know why!" In the process he stopped up the plumbing on the floors below hima neighbor called city management to complain that someone had flushed large amounts of dog food down the toilets, but it turned out to be pellets of grow medium. During his tenure, Lester has been interested in gaining exposure for Whittier and really putting it on the map; he has recently been in talks with two reality television production companies and the producers of a Gerard Butler submarine movie. Whittier is surrounded by breathtaking mountains and home to majestic animals such as reindeer who live in a small enclosure just outside of Begich Towers, and humpback whales who frolic in the pristine waters of Prince William Sound. Time to Sell? It has vacant units for sale and some units belonging to seasonal residents. People in Whittier get out of their cars carefully; the wind has been known to shatter windshields and bend car doors backwards. Experience Whittier living at Begich Towers. The Hodge and the Buckner Composite building, dubbed a city under one roof, are the largest most modern inhabited structures built by the Corps of Engineers since the Pentagon.. But when the temperature dips below freezing, that window narrows to five minutes. At any time, a resident can knock on the police chief's door, and students can get help from the teacher for study. [ Buckner Building: Named in honor of General Simon Bolivar Buckner, the large building crammed an entire military post into one building. The complex has a shop . Find AK real estate agents Take the elevator up to the 3rd floor to see a doctor if you're not feeling well. Before the year 2000 there was no vehicular access to Whittier. They were engineering marvels, built to withstand bomb blasts, earthquakes, fires, and 60+ mile-per-hour winds all while housing up to 1,000 troops indoors across its 150 studio, two, and three-bedroom apartments. There are 198 units, and in the bottom of the building is the police office, a gym, the city clerk's office and a store. on ActiveRain. If there is a fire, at least everyone will stay warm. While following the Rolling Stones across the country during their 1972 tour, Jim Bell found a discarded cardboard sign on the side of the road that read: ALASKA. On a whim he picked it up and stuck his thumb out. ]. Wealthy residents of New York who pay big bucks for condos with in-house amenities could only dream of such lavish luxury. Post your own FREE listing! Adventure Tours. [ Before the tunnel conversion began, BTI condos sold for, o back to your condo and shut the door so you can avoid the noise. Whittier AK is located just fifty miles outside of Anchorage. 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