United States · Alaska · Anchorage
Bootleggers Cove, Anchorage — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Bootleggers Cove is a historic residential neighbourhood of Anchorage, set on a bluff above Cook Inlet.
About Bootleggers Cove
Where to stay in Bootleggers Cove
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Stays in Bootleggers Cove lean quiet and residential, a short walk from downtown Anchorage. Most beds sit close to the bluff. Guesthouses and bed-and-breakfasts occupy restored frame houses near the Oscar Anderson House Museum, where the streets tip down toward the water of Cook Inlet, while the busier lodging strip gathers a few blocks inland around the Anchorage Museum.
Rooms fill fast in summer. Book early and pick your side.
About Bootleggers Cove
What are the main landmarks in Bootleggers Cove?
The Oscar Anderson House Museum anchors the neighbourhood. It sits in Elderberry Park. Built for a Swedish butcher in the townsite's first year, the timber house survives as one of the earliest wood-frame homes in Anchorage and opens for tours above the shore of Cook Inlet.
Nearby stand the Leopold David House and the Oscar Gill House, two more relics of the founding era. All Saints Episcopal Church rises inland. Two railroad-era relics still stand along the lanes as well, the Alaska Engineering Commission Cottage No. 23 and the Alaska Engineering Commission Cottage No. 25, plain wood cabins from the camp that first surveyed the grid.
What is the history of Bootleggers Cove?
Bootleggers Cove grew with the railroad camp that became Anchorage. The name recalls a smuggling past. When federal engineers surveyed the townsite and the Alaska Engineering Commission raised its cottages, the shoreline coves gave whisky runners a quiet landing beyond the reach of the camp's dry rules, and the tag stuck.
The Leopold David House went up in that first decade. Its owner served as the town's first mayor, a marker of how quickly the neighbourhood filled with the young city's leading families.
Where is Bootleggers Cove?
Bootleggers Cove occupies the low bluff on the western edge of downtown Anchorage, where the land drops to the mudflats and tidal reach of Cook Inlet. The water sets its bounds.
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Updated July 2026