Holy Family Parish was established the same year as the city of Anchorage. In 1915 the priest John Vander Pol was sent to Alaska to investigate the need for a parish in the new settlement. A. J. Wendler acquired two lots for the new parish in an auction for $175. Pol designed a simple wood-frame building with a veneer of ornamental cement block that measured by feet. It was during the pastorate of
Robert O'Flanagan that the present church was built.
Seattle architect Augustine A. Porreca was chosen to design the new church. Work began on the structure in 1946. The first mass was celebrated in the unfinished basement on December 14, 1947. Archbishop
Joseph T. Ryan was installed as the first Archbishop of Anchorage on April 14, 1966. Holy Family church became a cathedral with the establishment of the new archdiocese. The original main entrance into the cathedral was along the side of the building through the tower. The architectural firm of McEntire and Pendergast designed a new
portico of the main
facade. It features two pairs of doors with oversized
transoms that replaced a large window. The exterior had been a natural gray color from the time of its construction. In 1970 it was painted off-white. Ryan invited the
Order of Preachers (Dominicans) to staff the cathedral in 1974. The cathedral was the host church for the 1981 visit of
Pope John Paul II to Anchorage, which attracted a crowd estimated at 80,000 people. Because of growth in the archdiocese and the limitations of its downtown location, it was decided that Holy Family was no longer a practical location for many liturgical functions of the archdiocese. Archbishop
Roger Schwietz petitioned the
Holy See in 2013 to have Our Lady of Guadalupe Church named a co-cathedral and Holy Family maintained as the historic cathedral. In October 2014, the petition was approved and Our Lady of Guadalupe was elevated to
co-cathedral status on December 14 of that year. In 2020,
Pope Francis canonically suppressed the Archdiocese of Anchorage and the Diocese of Juneau and erected the new Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau with their combined territory. The
Papal bull, which established the new archdiocese, designated Our Lady of Guadalupe as its cathedral and the
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in
Juneau as its
co-cathedral. Holy Family ceased being the cathedral at that time and was given the title "Old Cathedral." ==See also==