2008: Operations Begin for a Garage Named After a Celebrated “Parking Fairy” in Anchorage

September 8, 2008

A large-scale parking garage in Anchorage, Alaska, was officially opened for use. Construction on this 10-story building, which encompasses a total of 368,830 square feet (34,265 square meters), began on February 1 of the previous year. The upper nine stories of this structure are used for parking, while the first story contains retail space.

At the time of its debut, this garage was named in memory of Carolyn “Linny” Pacillo (1959-2006). Her family had long operated Courtney’s Tudor Service, one of the last surviving independent gas stations in Anchorage. (The family sold this station in 2003; it has since gone out of business altogether.)

During the 1990s, Linny and her sister Susan achieved “folk hero” status in Alaska’s largest city by going around downtown Anchorage on a regular basis and inserting additional coins into parking meters to help ensure that those meters would not expire while motor vehicles were still parked there. These sisters, who routinely wore tutus while pursuing that activity, became widely known as the Parking Fairies. Their story is highlighted via artwork in the main elevator lobby of the Linny Pacillo Parking Garage.

The artwork on each garage level in this structure focuses on Alaska’s wide range of flora and fauna. A large mural titled “Focus on Statehood” is prominently displayed on the outside of the building. This mural — shown in the accompanying photo taken in 2019 — was created by artist Dan De Roux. The four men featured in this mural each played a pivotal role in Alaska becoming the 49^th state in 1959.

These men, from left to right, are Bob Atwood (1907-1997), the longtime editor and publisher of the Anchorage Times; Bill Egan (1914-1984), both a shadow U.S. senator for what was then the Alaska Territory and the state’s first governor; Bob Bartlett (1904-1968), both an Alaska Territory delegate to the U.S House of Representatives and one of the state’s first U.S senators; and Ernest Gruening (1887-1974), both a long-serving governor of the Alaska Territory and another one of the state’s first U.S. senators. DeRoux’s mural also contains 540 smaller images that each highlight someone or something closely linked with communities throughout Alaska.

Photo Credit: Craig Talbert (https://www.flickr.com/people/29911209@N00) – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Additional information on the Linny Pacillo Parking Garage is available at https://www.davisconstructors.com/project/linny-pacillo-parking-garage/