ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – After years of discussion, Anchorage is getting a new downtown branch library that will be located in the Historic City Hall building on 4th Avenue. If all goes according to plan, City Manager Becky Windt Pearson said construction will begin in July with an opening date expected in the beginning of 2027.
The money to fund operations at the new library is coming from a trust held by the Anchorage Library Foundation, which is now worth more than $7 million. The money was bequeathed to the foundation by longtime Anchorage resident Janet Goetz who died in 2010. The funds came with specific instructions that they be used to fund a downtown library branch to serve residents, workers and visitors.
“Her vision was to have a library that was part of the downtown community, that you could walk to, that would have all those resources that a library has,” said Municipal Library Director Majorie Harris…