Government Hill, along with portions of downtown Anchorage and the Turnagain-By-The-Sea subdivision southwest of downtown, were among the hardest hit in the earthquake of March 27, 1964. A landslide along the bluff immediately east of Loop Road, estimated as covering over , resulted in the destruction of Government Hill Elementary School, two residences atop the bluff, and a railroad building at the bottom. The west wing of the school was sheared in two. Due to continuing instability of the land underneath, the building was left as it was and the site fenced off, until the site was redeveloped as a neighborhood park in 1985.