The town of Whittier, Alaska began as an Army installation named Camp Sullivan during WWII. A deep water ice-free port and a train spur through the newly completed tunnel made it the perfect entry to supply the interior of Alaska. It was also chosen because of its lousy weather, yes, I said lousy weather. Whittier is a soggy place that recieves on average, 200 inches of rain, and 250 inches of snow and has roaring winter winds. All of these combined made it the perfect place for an undetectable military base by enemy survaillance. The original camp consisted of wooden buildings, trailers, piers and railroad facilities.
Fast forward a few years to the cold war and Whittier once again became an important port. The town’s 2 very large concrete buildings were built during this time. The Hodge Building had apartments for families and the Buckner Building had sleeping quarters for 1,000 military personnel and all the amenities they could need such as cafeterias, bakeries, a theater and bowling alley, babershop and medical facilities, and of course, a 6 cell jail. It was known as “the city under one roof”. The two buildings were even connected by underground tunnels so travel between the buildings and the school was easy during the winter.
In 1964, the military abandoned the base and the town of Whittier was born.
