Est. 1915 · National Register of Historic Places (1978) · First wood-frame house in Anchorage · Anchorage's only historic house museum · Home of Anchorage pioneer Oscar Anderson
Anchorage began as a tent city on the banks of Ship Creek in 1915, established as the headquarters for construction of the Alaska Railroad. Oscar Anderson, a Swedish immigrant and butcher, said he was the eighteenth person to step ashore. That same year he built a small wood-frame home on a corner lot in what is now Elderberry Park, at the edge of downtown overlooking Cook Inlet.
The house was the first wood-frame residence in Anchorage. Anderson made his living in the meat-packing and shipping trades and remained in the home for almost six decades. He died in 1974, and the property eventually passed to the Alaska Association for Historic Preservation, which today operates it as a museum.
Between 1978 and 1982 the structure was carefully restored to its 1915 appearance, with period furnishings and family materials reinstalled where possible. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 13, 1978, while restoration was still underway.
The museum is the only historic house museum in Anchorage and is not open for the 2026 season because of basement flooding, mold abatement and needed repairs. It sits inside Elderberry Park, which is a regular meeting point for Anchorage's downtown ghost tours.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Anderson_House_Museum
- https://oscarandersonhousemuseum.org/
- https://www.alaska.org/detail/oscar-anderson-house
- https://www.loc.gov/item/ak0405/
- https://www.americanghostwalks.com/top-13-haunted-places-in-anchorage-alaska
Phantom footstepsDoors slammingCold spots / heavy airApparitions in photographs
Anchorage ghost-tour operators and visitors describe the Oscar Anderson House as a quiet haunting tied to a single former resident. According to American Ghost Walks' inventory of haunted Anchorage sites, guests inside the museum report doors that slam without explanation, footsteps echoing across the upper floor when no one is upstairs, and a heaviness in the air in certain rooms — phenomena commonly attributed to Anderson himself.
A frequently shared TripAdvisor visitor review describes a photograph taken on the staircase between rooms that, on later examination, appeared to show a man-shaped figure not visible to the photographer at the time. The review is one of the most-cited single accounts in Anchorage-haunting roundups.
Docents at the museum approach the reputation with restraint. The primary mission is preservation and interpretation of Anchorage's earliest residential architecture, and the haunted lore is something the museum acknowledges rather than markets. The museum is not open for the 2026 season because of basement flooding, mold abatement and needed repairs. The house is a regular stop on downtown ghost-walking tours that meet in Elderberry Park.
Notable Entities
Oscar Anderson
