Anchorage, Alaska

Neighborhood Airplane Hangars

A suburban street in Anchorage doubles as a runway, and each home has its own airplane hangar.

Move into a home on Cange Street on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska, and you are essentially moving into an airport. The small sub-division is cut down the middle with a runway, and each house is equipped with a small built-in airplane hangar the same way many suburban homes have built-in garages.

The large, ’80s-era houses in this neighborhood line what at first appears to be an ordinary gravel road, but is in fact a small airstrip called the Sky Harbor airport. The cooperatively owned airstrip runs exactly parallel to Cange Street, and the residents who own small propellor planes have exclusive access to the runway directly from their front doors.

An online real estate listing for a house in the neighborhood advertises: “An indoor preflight and a 30 second taxi to your 1800 foot gravel airstrip put all that Alaska has to offer just steps from your living room!” The hangar doors are visible on each home, although some prefer to park their planes outside close to the house.

Alaska is a state that is largely reachable and traversable by air. Roads do not connect Anchorage to many of the state’s towns and national parks, and it takes days to drive from the city to even the northernmost reaches of the lower 48. In this remote part of the country, access to your own set of wings and a place to keep it seems a sensible enough variation on the American dream.