While there is certainly small town charm where everyone knows each other; it’s definitely rare to find a town where every resident lives in the same building.
The YouTube channel Seek Discomfort recently uploaded a video of the them visiting Begich Towers, a residential building in Whitter, Alaska.
The place is home for a town
Begich Towers is based in the town of Whittier on the southern coast of Alaska and is home to almost all residents of that town.
The towered building houses 263 residents with the YouTuber having gone to explore its story and the stories of those who reside within it.
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Background about the towers
Seek Discomfort is a YouTube channel known for taking the risks and seeking the less known.
At the start of the video, the YouTuber begins to give an introduction on what Begich Towers is, given that all residents of a town living under one roof is an unusual situation.
He started off with some facts
“This is Begich Towers, a 14-storey building which houses almost all of this town’s population,” The YouTuber said in a voiceover while showing the building.
“Built during the height of the Cold War to house troops stationed in this area, it was designed so that the residents could stay inside the building for weeks on end during periods of intense weather conditions,” he noted.
The building also holds the local spots
“With the local grocery store, school, church and post office all located inside this building, the Begich Towers seems more like a fallout shelter than a residential building,” he said.
So the place was originally built during times when complete shelter would have been necessary.
The building was built in 1957
Construction of Begich Towers was done in the 50s, having been fully completed in 1957.
With the vast majority of residents in the town of Whittier living within the place, many have since nicknamed it a ‘town under one roof.’
The YouTuber went into the building
Within the video, we see the man explore Begich Towers from the inside, showing the post office, a small shop, and an ATM machine in the building’s basement.
He then shows a tunnel that connects the place’s residents with the school.
The man spoke with a resident
As the YouTuber filmed the inside of the towers, he noted that some residents seemed friendly while others seemed to want to be left alone.
He spoke with a resident named June, who talked about how she lives in such a unique place and how she ended up there.
The resident was living on a boat
In speaking with the YouTuber, June shared that she had been living on a boat before deciding to move to Begich Towers, but that it was a long process to find a place there.
I mean, living on a boat is already pretty cool!
June shared some perks
The resident revealed that the process was long, saying, “It took us a few years to get in the building, because we had to wait for some condos to come for sale.”
Despite this, the place had a few perks, with June saying that on “clear nights” you can see the Northern Lights above the mountains.
Begich Towers seems like a good spot
The main residential building in Whittier seems like a really cool place, with June going on to tell the interviewers, “I’ve been here 40 years and I love it!”
If anything, all of your friends would be living in the same building, imagine the dinner parties!