National Park Service
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RUSSIAN BISHOP'S HOUSE
excerpts from National Register of Historic Places
Inventory—Nomination Form
1. Name
Russian Bishop's House
Russian Mission Orphanage
2. Location
Lincoln and Monastery Streets
Sitka, Alaska
3. Classification
Category: Site; Ownership: Public; Status: Work in Progress; Accessible: Yes, restricted;
Present Use: Government, Museum
4. Agency
National Park Service
Alaska Regional Office
540 West Fifth Avenue
Anchorage, Alaska
5. Location of Legal Description
State - Municipal Office Building
Lake Street
Sitka, Alaska
6. Representation in Existing Surveys
National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
July 1961 (Revised July 1965), Federal
National Park Service
Washington, District of Columbia
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Russian Bishop's House, by Robert Spude, 1985.
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7. Description
Condition: Good (RBH), Fair (105), Deteriorated (school), altered, original
site, moved (Bldg. 105 only—date unknown)
Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance
The Russian Bishop's House site includes the Russian
Bishop's House and two ancillary buildings: the Old School and House No.
105. The Russian Bishop's House is a two-story log structure, 42 feet in
width and 63 feet in length. The Old School is a two-story frame
structure, measuring 18 feet by 32 feet, and located immediately east of
the Russian Bishop's House. House No. 105 is a one-story frame structure
26 feet by 28 feet (±), located northwest of the Russian Bishop's
House.
The Russian, Bishop's House was built between 1841
and 1843. It was divided lengthwise into nine bays, each 7 feet in
dimension, or one sazhen, a Russian unit of measure.
The bays were typically fenestrated with four light
casement windows topped by two light transom. The second floor south
windows were made up of six light casement windows topped by a two light
transom.
A hip roof, probably of board material originally,
covered the house. This roof was supported by a sophisticated system of
rafters and tie beams which, in effect, functioned as trusses.
Attached to the east and west ends of the main
structure were subordinate shed roofed structures known as galleries.
These were of heavy timber framed construction and housed stairways,
storage, latrines, and entryways. The galleries extended the full width
of the main structure and were fourteen feet (±) in width.
The main structure was sided on the south side
(probably in 1851) with weather-boarding. The galleries were enclosed
by a board and batten vertical siding. The log wall of the north
elevation remained exposed until the 1887 rehabilitations.
The building became the education and administrative
headquarters of the Orthodox faith in Alaska, although under ownership
of the Russian American Company. The first floor of the building housed
administrative offices, classrooms, living quarters, and the kitchen.
The second floor housed the chapel, the Church of the Annunciation, and
Bishop Innocent's (Ivan Veniaminov) living quarters.
There were problems with the structure as time
passed. The roof leaked and the unseasoned wall logs shrank as they
air-dried in place. The side galleries were roofed with sheet iron in
1849. In 1850 Bishop Innocent made recommendations for the
rehabilitation of the structure to the Cathedral Arch-Priest Peter
Litvinstsiev, who formalized the request in a report to the New
Archangel Ecclesiastical Consistory.
In 1867 following the purchase of
Alaska by the U.S. Government, the Russian American Company transferred
ownership of the site, along with other church-related properties, to
the Russian Orthodox Church in North America. Sometime after 1867 and
prior to 1885, a small porch was constructed at the main entry on the
south elevation of the Russian Bishop's House.
In 1872 permission was given to transfer the seat of
the diocese to San Francisco. During the absence of the Bishop, spatial
uses were altered: living quarters for the priests were moved upstairs
and a second-floor kitchen was added. However, the house suffered much
neglect, and by early 1886 permission had been sought from the St.
Petersburg Synod for major repair work. It was completed in May 1887
under the supervision of Peter Callsen.
The 1887 repair and rehabilitation work is one of the
key events in the building's history. The original timber-framed
stairwell galleries were replaced and siding was placed on all four
sides of the structure. Rotted sill logs were replaced in the north
wall. The interior was repaired and painted. Two doors in the chapel
were sealed and a new one installed. Also at this time nearly an entire
interior crosswall was removed, creating the large southwest room on the
first floor of the house. During the late 1880's part of the lower floor
was used as an inn for travelers.
In approximately 1896 a small one-story frame
addition that functioned as a washroom was added to the east gallery.
Also during the 1890's a door into the north end of the west gallery was
closed. It is also probable that the roof was reshingled very early in
the twentieth century. By the turn of the century the two original
classrooms on the first floor were being used as bedrooms for orphaned
boys.
In 1903 an auxillary diocese was established for the
Aleutian Islands and Alaska with a Bishop at Sitka. This was the first
time since 1872 that a Bishop had been in full-time residence in the
Bishop's House. Now the space functions again changed as the priests made room on
the second floor for the Bishop.
During the twentieth century the first floor of the
Bishop's House continued to evolve in use while the second floor continued to house
the chapel and the Bishop's quarters. During the 1920's (and possibly earlier)
local newspapers, the Sitka Sun and Sitka Tribune, were both printed
in the building in conjunction with a church printing shop.
During the late 1920's the lower floor was converted
into three apartments, while the large room in the southwest corner of
the building was used for meetings and other activities. It is likely
that electrical and plumbing systems were initially installed by this
time. In 1936 the community library was housed in the large southwest
room after the library building burned.
In 1949 this same room was turned into a gift shop,
and the west window in the south wall was enlarged for a door. The Sitka
Historical Society also used the room for a meeting place and artifact
storage from 1957 through November 1966. The first floor apartments were
closed in 1967. Finally, in 1969, Bishop Theodosius moved into a new
residence, leaving the building empty.
The Old School was constructed in the late summer of
1897 for a kindergarten and girls' classes. A circa 1900 photograph shows
the building had a masonry chimney and four-over-four light, double-hung
windows. These are still in existence, although deteriorated to varying
degrees. A circa 1905 photograph shows wood shingle roofing. By that
year, gutters and downspouts had been installed. Church records show
that in 1908 repairs were made to floor, windows, doors, and fireplace. In a
circa 1915 photograph an enclosed stairway, an addition, shows at the
north end of the building. The date of this addition is not known. It is
still in existence although in a deteriorated condition.
In March of 1922, Bishop Dashkevich recommended the
entrance of the Old School face the American public school to its east.
Consequently the original west entrance was closed up and replaced with
a double-hung window. The interior stairway at the west entrance was
removed. A 1924 photograph shows the addition of a stairway on the east
exterior. This stairway is no longer present.
There is little documentation concerning changes to
the Old School from the 1940's to the present. In 1922 there were large
undivided rooms on both floors. In a 1943 photograph it appears that
north-south center walls were installed in both the upstairs and the
downstairs rooms. Asphalt shingle siding was applied in 1963 and removed
in 1981. A 1965 photograph shows a structure attached to the north end
of the building; this structure has since been removed. In the 1960's
and 1970's it appears the building became a tenement. The interior now
includes a living room/bedroom area at the south end of the building,
entry way and storage area, and kitchen area on each floor.
The third building at the site, House No. 105, was
built in 1887. Its intended use was as income or rental property.
Originally located 100 feet north of the Russian Bishop's House, it was
described in 1892 as having four rooms. In 1936 the lot on which House
No. 105 was located was sold to the City of Sitka. It is not the house
was moved off that lot then; long-time Sitka residents indicate it
was moved to its present site in the late 1950's or
early 1960's.
A six-over-six light, double-hung window had been
replaced by 1974 with a one-over-one light window. Photographs from 1975
show the windows boarded over and the building with a rear addition. The
date of the addition is unknown.
In 1962, under the provisions of the Historic Sites
Act of 1935, the Russian Bishop's House was designated a National
Historic Landmark. A national survey of historic sites and buildings
form was completed in July 1965. With the passage of the National
Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the Russian Bishop's House, known at
the time as the "Russian Mission Orphanage," was placed on the National
Register of Historic Places. Congress allocated funds to purchase the
site on October 18, 1972. In 1973, after one hundred and thirty years of
continuous use of the site by the Russian Orthodox Church, the National
Park Service took possession of it. In 1980, the site was redesignated
the "Russian Bishop's House" on the National Register.
By that time the weathering, foundation problems, and
leakage had taken their toll on the Russian Bishop's House. Interior
finishes were falling away while exterior siding rotted and buckled.
In the summer of 1976 the National Park Service
removed extraneous modern partitions on the first floor, removed and
stored the handhewn historic first floor planking, and conducted more
extensive investigations of the historic fabric as well as stabilization
work. The additional fabric investigation dramatically showed the
necessity of providing a foundation for the main structure and replacing
rotten wall and sill logs. Five phases of a complex six-phase
restoration project have been completed as of this writing. The
structural integrity is now assured and the external restoration is now
complete. Phase six will involve interior restoration on the second
floor and adjustments for adaptive use on the first floor.
The overall form and much of the fabric of the
Russian Bishop's House has not changed extensively since 1843 with the
exception of the galleries on both ends of the building. These were
removed and replaced in 1887.
The Old School was used for storage for some years;
it is now boarded up and not in use. The professionally recommended
treatment for the Old School is that the exterior of the building be
restored to an appearance of the 1896 to 1922 period and the interior be
adapted for National Park Service uses supporting the operation and
maintenance of the Russian Bishop's House. The purpose would be to
create a rehabilitated, functional facility with an historic
appearance. (This would not, however, be an academic restoration.) Due
to limited funds, management is proceeding
with an alternate method of treatment described in
the historic structures report. The building will be stabilized and will
remain closed to the public. It will continue to function as an
architectural buffer between the Bishop's House and the adjacent modern
development.
In 1976 the interior of House No. 105 was adapted for
use as a "construction shack." The chimneys and rear addition were
removed. These and the rear doorway were boarded over. The interior floors
and walls were covered with plywood. The house has continued to function
as a "construction shack" to the present. Recommended treatment for House
No. 105 is repair and stabilization.
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Russian Bishop's House interior restoration, by Robert Belous,
1978.
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8. Significance
Period: 1800-1899; Areas of Significance: Architecture,
Education, Engineering, Exploration/Settlement, Religion
Specific Dates: 1843; Builder/Architect: Unknown
Statement of Significance
Russian presence in the New World does not loom large when
one is surveying those nations that explored, exploited, and settled the North
American continent. However, lasting monuments to the Russian venture in North America
were left by the Russian Orthodox Church missionaries: buildings and, the
living proof of their work, the Russian Orthodox community in Alaska.
Russian Bishop's House site at Sitka was a cultural
and educational center in Alaska from the 1840's to the mid-twentieth century.
The Russian Bishop's House was the residence of Ivan Veniaminov, the great Russian
religious leader and first Bishop of Alaska, and the administrative center
for his and other Orthodox missionary efforts among the peoples native to
Alaska. The great religious and moral influence exerted from this
missionary center can be observed by the large numbers of Orthodox
communicants living in the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands, and other Alaskan
coastal communities.
In addition to the historical significance associated
with the site, the Russian Bishop's House is significant architecturally
because of the high quality and unique construction characteristics of
Russian vernacular design, such as the intricate joinery methods.
The Russian Bishop's House is significant in the category
of engineering because it displays a building system that is capable of
distributing structural loads in a more sophisticated manner than that
typically found in log construction on this continent. The roof truss
system exemplifies this. Also important in the category of engineering
is the effective system of heating and conserving heat in the building,
exemplified by the gallery "airlocks," a method unique and sophisticated
among log structures on this continent.
Historical and building elements are discussed in more
detail below under the categories of historical, structural, architectural, and
environmental characteristics. The Old School and House No. 105 are addressed in
the ancillary buildings section.
Historical
Returning from Russia to Sitka on September 27, 1841,
with the rank of Bishop of Kamchatka, the Kuriles, and the Aleutians, Ivan
Veniaminov set about expanding the educational and missionary efforts
among the peoples native to his vast diocese.
Native schools were established at St. Paul's Harbor
(Kodiak), Alma Island, at the Nushagak and Kvikhpak missions, and Bering
Islands. From a missionary center at Redoubt St. Michael on Norton Sound
his emissaries even penetrated into the lower Yukon and Kuskokwim River
basins. Existing schools, such as those at Unalaska and the Pribilof
Islands, were continued and improved.
Adolph Etolin, Governor of Russian America, and chief
executive of the Russian American Company in America, had the Russian Bishop's
House built to fulfill obligations to the Russian Orthodox Church set forth in the
Tsar's Ukase of 1821. The House was built to serve as Veniaminov's residence,
office, and private chapel.
The cornerstone of the Russian Bishop's House was
laid sometime in 1841. By December of 1843, the substance of the work was
completed at a cost to the Russian American Company of 25,000 rubles.
When Fort Ross in California was evacuated by the
Russians in 1842, the church paraphernalia in their entirety were moved
from the California chapel to Sitka and placed in the Bishop's chapel,
also known as the Church of the Annunciation. In 1841, Veniaminov
established an ecclesiastical school for Russian children and children
of mixed blood at Sitka. This institution was located in the Russian
Bishop's House after 1842. In 1845 the school was elevated to the status
of a seminary, where the subjects of study were Russian, English,
religion, mathematics, navigation, history, and bookkeeping. In 1858,
the seminary at Sitka was transferred to the Asiatic mainland and, in 1859,
Veniaminov left Alaska to work in Siberia. He became the Metropolitan of
Moscow in 1867 and died in 1880.
As a result of Veniaminov's and later missionaries'
efforts, the number of Orthodox communicants in Alaska increased from
5,512 in 1841 to 9,568 by 1860 and were scattered over a vast region. In 1867
Russian America was sold to the United States and the North American
Orthodox Church reorganized. It continued to prosper until the Bolshevik
Revolution of 1917 abruptly halted Russia's support for the North
American diocese.
After 1917 there was little change or growth in the
diocese for nearly 40 years. In 1967, however, the Church, with new
leadership and a renewed sense of mission in Alaska, began expanding its
program in Alaska. In 1979 there were 75 Orthodox communities in Alaska,
30 with churches and the remainder with chapels. Twenty-two priests,
16 of them Native, served a far-flung diocese.
Structural
The foundation system of the Russian Bishop's House
was originally stone rubble. Uniquely, this was constructed to conform
to the grade, with the stones decreasing in size as the grade rose. In
this manner the foundation provided a fairly level surface on which to
set the structure. Typically, full-length Sitka spruce logs were used in
the walls.
Adolph Etolin was a native of Finland and it is known
that he was accompanied by skilled axmen from his country. They were
unexcelled as timber workers, and most of Sitka's finest log buildings
were hewn by them out of native spruce. Thus a good possibility exists
that Finnish craftsmen constructed the Bishop's House. Russian and
Finnish construction methods were similar, and typical Russian
architectural detailing of the period was employed.
The joinery of exterior corners and of the interior
walls to the exterior walls. display a sophistication superior to that
usually found in log construction on the North American continent.
Of special note is the roof framing method. It is
composed of a log rafter system in hip roof form, with opposing rafters
connected at their lower ends by a "tie beam," thus creating a truss
system.
Architectural
Window and door jambs are mortise and tenon joined
and wedged into place at the head, providing structural stability at
openings in the log walls. Other sophisticated detailing is found on
such elements as the original door hardware, some of which have brass
cover plates over iron hinge leaves.
Ivan Veniaminov (Bishop Innocent) may well have drawn
the original plans for his residence, as he did for St. Michael's
Cathedral. The original floor plan represented the integration of
structural and functional needs.
Environmental
Several elements in the structure are noteworthy in
regard to control of the environment. The galleries functioned as air
locks, preventing direct heat loss from the main structure to the
exterior. Oakum and moss between exterior wall logs prevented moisture
entry and heat escape. Sand insulation between floor and ceiling planks
provided audio and thermal barriers. The first floor was heated by
cylindrical iron stoves. Massive masonry stoves at the
second floor were fired during the day and slow released heat during the
night. High door tresholds and partial walls helped control drafts and
the distribution of heat among the rooms.
Ancillary Buildings
The Old School served as a Russian Orthodox Church
school from 1897 to 1922, and as a public school for the following decades.
It reflects the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church in the
educational aspect of Alaska in the late nineteenth and first quarter of the
twentieth centuries.
While House No. 105 is located within the boundaries
of the Russian Bishop's House site, it remained outside direct involvement
with church activities, serving mainly as a rental property and, at times,
as a priest's residence. No notable persons or events have been related to
House No. 105. The historic correspondence indicates the building was
considered substandard from the late 19th century on, an assessment that
still holds.
9. Major Bibliographical References
Historic Resource Study, The Bishop's House,
James Mote, National Park Service, Denver Service Center, Denver,
Colorado, 1980.
Historic Structure Report Architectural Data
Section, Russian Bishop's House, Paul C. Cloyd, E.I.T., National
Park Service, Denver Service Center, Denver, Colorado, 1980.
(Draft) Historic Structure Reports
for House 105 and the School: Administrative, Physical
History and Analysis Sections, Paul C. Cloyd, E.I.T., National
Park Service, Denver Service Center, Denver, Colorado,
1982.
Russian Orthodoxy in Alaska, Barbara S. Smith,
Alaska Historical Commission, Anchorage, Alaska, 1980.
10. Geographical Data
Acreage of nominated property: .5 acres; Quadrangle name: Sitka;
UTM References: 08 480014 6323004
Verbal Boundary Description and Justification
The boundary is coterminous with the southeast
portion of Tract G formerly called the Greek Church Mission Reserve and now owned
by National Park Service. The site is a rectangular lot with the upper left
quadrant intersected by Monastery Street and the lower left quadrant missing.
It is bordered on the south by Lincoln Street. The property line proceeds north
from Lincoln Street approximately 100' at 56°30'W., 70 feet west along the north
property line to N75°44'E.
11. Form Prepared By
Joaqlin Estus, Historian
National Park Service
540 West Fifth Avenue
Anchorage, Alaska
February 11, 1983
12. State Historic Preservation Officer Certification
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