Guide to the Pete’s City Gym records
1981-2011
Collection number: HMC-1114.
Creator: Pete’s City Gym.
Title: Pete’s City Gym records.
Dates: 1981-2011.
Volume of collection: 1.0 cubic feet and 301 mb electronic material.
Language of materials: Collection materials are in English.
Collection summary: Records of a long-time membership-based Anchorage gym.
Organizational history:
Founded in 1969 as Anchorage City Gym, it was located at 6th Avenue and G Street in a small lower levelroom next to a recreation room and basketball court where the old Metro League played. This G Street building was originally Anchorage’s first high school. In 1985 the building was razed to make room for the Performing Arts Center. With a lease from the city, the gym then relocated to the small brick building on 10th Avenue on the Park Strip next to the tennis courts and seasonal outdoor ice rink and basketball courts. At that time it was still called City Gym. The state of Alaska issued a certificate declaring the gym as a nonprofit corporation 501(c) (3) entitled City Gym, Ltd. on October 26, 1987. During most of the early existence of the City Gym it was kept operating due to the efforts of Peter A. Maienza. When the gym moved to the 10th Avenue Park Strip location, Pete went with it. Pete died June 24, 1991 at Providence Hospital. Immediately after Pete’s death, on July 8, 1991, Pete’s board of directors filed an amendment to change the name to Pete’s City Gym. On his deathbed Pete asked Mark Mallinen, who was a regular gym monitor, to keep the gym running. Mark Mallinen honored that request, became the manager of Pete’s City and kept the gym open until 2011 when it could no longer afford its lease from the city. Declining enrollment, large-scale competition, and increased costs dictated the dissolution of Pete’s City Gym. Reluctantly, after many efforts of the board of directors, Pete’s City Gym officially closed on November 30, 2011. [Compiled by Jerry D. McDonnell, Secretary of Pete’s Board of Directors, 2011.]
Collection description:
The collection contains records relating to the operation of Pete’s City Gym. The bulk of collection records date from 2000-2011, but some earlier operational records are included. These records include procedure manuals, board meeting minutes, equipment sales and purchase records, photographs, funding records, and membership information.
Arrangement: Collection materials were retained in the order in which they were provided to the Archives.
Alternative formats: The collection includes 301 mb of electronic records.
Digitized copies: This collection has not been digitized. For information about obtaining digital copies, please contact Archives and Special Collections.
Access restrictions: Some email correspondence within the collection is closed to access until July 1, 2037.
Use restrictions: The Archives holds copyright only to those materials created by Pete’s City Gym.
Preferred citation: Pete’s City Gym records, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.
Acquisition note: The collection was given to the Archives by Anne Freitag on behalf of the Board of Pete’s City Gym in 2012.
Processing information: This collection was described by Arlene Schmuland in 2012.