Juneau's oldest operating hotel, open since 1913 and the city's most-told ghost story.
167 S Franklin St, Juneau, AK 99801
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Room rates for an overnight stay; the ground-floor bar is open to the public.
Access
Limited Access
Multi-story 1913 hotel on a downtown street; stairs to upper floors, no elevator.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1913 · Oldest operating hotel in Juneau · Gold Rush-era commercial district · National Register of Historic Places
The Alaskan Hotel was built in 1913 at 167 South Franklin Street, in the heart of Juneau's downtown commercial district, during the years when the Gold Rush and the Treadwell and Alaska-Juneau hard-rock mines drove the local economy. It opened as a first-class hotel and bar serving miners, sailors, and travelers passing through the territorial capital, and it has operated under various owners ever since, making it the oldest continuously running hotel in Juneau.
The building is a Victorian-style frame structure with a recessed entry, period light fixtures, and stained glass that survive from the early 20th century. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The ground-floor Alaskan Bar has long been a fixture of South Franklin Street, drawing both residents and the cruise-ship visitors who fill the downtown waterfront in summer.
Like many Gold Rush-era hotels, the Alaskan's early decades included rooms used by sex workers, a common feature of resource-boom towns where men far outnumbered women. That history is the seed of the building's best-known legend. The hotel has been restored and maintained as a working hotel and bar rather than a museum, and its reputation as Juneau's most haunted building has become part of its draw, reinforced by a 2019 appearance on the Travel Channel series 'Portals to Hell.'
Sources
The Alaskan Hotel's haunting is the most reported in Juneau, and it centers on a woman in white whom local tellings call Alice. In the legend, Alice arrived during the Gold Rush with her husband, a miner who left for the camps promising to return and never did. Stranded and without money in a town where work for women was scarce, she is said to have turned to sex work in the hotel before her death. A desk clerk's account describes a blonde woman in a white dress drifting through the upper-floor halls, and the same figure has been reported in the ground-floor bar.
Reported phenomena include flickering and self-switching lights, footsteps in empty corridors, doors and objects moving, and a general sense of presence on the upper floors. Room 315 recurs in the stories as a focal point. A 2018 KTOO report recounts a guest who specifically requested a haunted room and described a frightening night there.
The hotel's reputation grew after the Travel Channel series 'Portals to Hell' filmed an episode at the Alaskan in 2019; its investigators reported capturing unexplained activity in the basement. The building is a standard stop on Juneau's downtown ghost-walk tours. As with most Gold Rush hotel legends, the specifics of Alice's life are folklore rather than documented record, but the volume and consistency of the modern reports are what keep the Alaskan at the top of Juneau's haunted list.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Book a room in Juneau's oldest operating hotel. The Victorian-era building retains its original woodwork and stained glass, and the ground-floor bar is a long-running downtown gathering spot. Guests who want the haunted reputation can ask the front desk about Room 315 and the upper-floor reports.
Stop into the ground-floor Alaskan Bar, open to the public, to see the period interior and hear the staff's accounts. The hotel is a regular stop on Juneau's downtown ghost-walk tours.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Eureka, CA
The Eureka Inn opened in 1922 as a four-story, 104-room Elizabethan Tudor Revival hotel covering a full city block of downtown Eureka. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in February 1982 and now operates as Eureka Inn, Trademark Collection by Wyndham.
Charles City, VA
Edgewood Plantation is an 1854 Gothic Revival mansion in Charles City County, Virginia, built by the Rowland brothers, millers from New Jersey. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, the property served as a Confederate lookout during the Civil War and has operated as a post office, restaurant, and bed-and-breakfast.
Dallas, TX
The Magnolia Hotel occupies the former Magnolia Petroleum Building, a 29-story Renaissance Revival skyscraper that opened in August 1922 as the headquarters of Magnolia Petroleum. Surpassing the Adolphus to become Texas's tallest building, it gained its enduring symbol in 1934 when Magnolia installed the rotating neon Pegasus on the roof. The building was converted into the luxury Magnolia Hotel in the late 1990s.