Anchorage Book Cache: from Downtown to the Sears Mall

On a cold Anchorage day, few places felt better than stepping inside an Anchorage Book Cache to warm up, browse, gather, and belong.

That small ritual opens into a larger story of how Russ and Doris Riemann built one of the city’s most loved bookstores.

In the winter, it was a nice, warm place to spend a relaxing time browsing the large selection of books, magazines, and sundries.

And on a warm summer day, it was a fun place to browse the shelves, discover a new book for your reading pleasure, and say hello to friends.

Share Your Book Cache Memories

They Created the Book Cache

Anchorage Book Cache Memories

Russ and Doris Riemann first came to Anchorage in 1953 when Russ accepted a job with the Alaska News Agency, a wholesale clearinghouse that sold magazines and other reading materials to stores and other businesses in South central Alaska.

But the news agency wasn't doing very well. So with dedication and hard work, Russ soon turned it around.

Then in about 1958, Russ and Doris Riemann started considering the idea of selling books directly to customers in a retail store.

That's when they joined a lady named Esther Tout, who ran a small 15-by-25 foot bookstore in the same building as Jonas Brothers Taxidermy and Furriers, located on Fifth Avenue.

It all Started in Jonas Brothers

They began with a small bookstore inside the museum. It became more and more popular each year.

So Russ and Doris began looking into opening their own store location.

Anchorage Book Cache Memories

The First Location

Then in the early 1960s, Doris and Russ made the move by putting together their very own bookstore and what would become the best known Book Cache location in town at 436 Fifth Avenue.

What are your memories?

The Original Idea

It didn’t start out as just The Book Cache.

The original idea was to have various stores under the name “The Cache.”

Those stores included:

• The Book Cache
• Stamp and Coin Cache
• Barb’s Cache and Carry
• Cache Dining and Cocktails

However, the idea of having a series of stores under the “Cache” umbrella didn’t work very well.

The first to go was Cache Dining and Cocktails.

Eventually, all the stores were gone, except for the book store.

And the rest is history.

Remember the Sears Mall Location?

When Anchorage got its first mall, the Sears Mall on Northern Lights Boulevard, the Book Cache saw the perfect place to find customers. They quickly jumped at the opportunity and opened the shop you see in the picture above.

You could walk into the mall, grab a treat at Andy’s Carmel Corn, then have some lunch or a cup of coffee before stopping in for a book or magazine.

The 1964 Good Friday Earthquake

March 27, 1964

For 5 long minutes the earth savagely shook Anchorage and Alaska like never before.

And the 1964 Good Friday earthquake took its toll.

Anchorage’s favorite Book Cache location was right next to the severe damage at the J.C. Penney building (seen above).

Sustaining major damage during the quake, Russ and Doris were among the first to get their bookstore open again… And with that, the Fifth Avenue Book Cache quickly became a very welcome information hub and meeting place for quake survivors.

Anchorage Book Cache Memories

As far away as Hawaii.

In the late 1980s, Russ and Doris Riemann sold The Book Cache.

At that time, they had grown to 17 stores across Alaska, including the Carr's Mall in Kenai and the Central Peninsula Mall in Soldotna.

And believe it or not, Maui, Hawaii, was the location of 2 of those 17 stores.

Anchorage Book Cache Memories

What are your memories?

The Book Cache is probably at the top of your list.

Over the years, each location became a great place to meet friends.

You could spend a lot of happy time just browsing through shelves of wonderful books, magazines, newspapers, and local information.

Book stores come and go, and now the Book Cache is gone. But for those of us who grew up, or lived in Anchorage when it was around, those stores will forever have a special place in our hearts.

In reading this article, it's easy to see why Russ, Doris, and the rest of their family had such great success.

They loved what they did, they loved the people of Anchorage and Alaska. And they didn't mind the hard work. And all of us enjoyed the fruits of their labor.

Thank you, Russ and Doris Riemann for the great Anchorage Memories.