title: McKinley Tower Apartments
text: # McKinley Tower Apartments
  
  The McKinley Tower Apartments, previously known as the East 4th & Denali Apartments, the Mt. McKinley Building, the McKay (or MacKay) Building and the McKinley Building, is a historic apartment building at 337 East Fourth Avenue in the eastern downtown of Anchorage, Alaska. Originally constructed by Swalling Construction owners, John H. Clawson and Albert Swalling, as a 14-story HUD 604 apartment building named the Mt. McKinley Bldg, it is the first, and oldest high-rise in Anchorage. McKinley Tower was designed in 1950 by Earl W. Morrison for MacDonald Architects of Seattle who also designed the nearly identical Inlet Towers at 1020 W. 12th Avenue. The building shares key design characteristics with several other buildings designed by Morrison including: Skye at Belltown in Seattle, WA. The Mendenhall Tower in Juneau, Mary Frances Towers in Ketchikan, and the Cathedral Arms building in Sitka.
  
  ## The McKay Building
  
  After the building had sat for years following damage in the 1964 Alaska earthquake, it was purchased at auction by Anchorage attorney and real estate investor, Neil S. Mackay. He renamed it the McKay Building (spelling intended) and converted into an office building that housed the State of Alaska's administrative offices and a private penthouse residence occupied by Mackay. The State of Alaska moved out in 1982 when the building was condemned by the city for failing fire codes. The building was completely gutted and stood windowless and abandoned for the next 20 years largely due to Mackay's legal issues in relation to the assassination of his wife Muriel Pfeil and brother in law Robert Pfeil.
  
  ## Renovation
  
  The tower and annex were purchased in 1998 by Anchorage developer Marc Marlow and later remodeled and brought up to code after significant seismic reinforcement work was completed.
  
  McKinley Tower was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
  
  