On a Remote Island in Alaska, a Local Landmark's Decade-Long Restoration Effort is Completed
On the shore of Unalaska, a remote island in Alaska’s Aleutian chain, a peculiar building stands out from its windswept surroundings: a meticulously designed Victorian-era home with blue siding, white trim, and a red roof. It’s the Bishop’s House at the Holy Ascension of Our Lord Cathedral, one of Alaska’s oldest Russian Orthodox churches.
For years the house sat disused. Fierce Bering Sea storms had faded its once-vibrant exterior, and moss crept over its cedar-shingled roof.
Last year, an Alaska-based nonprofit, Russian Orthodox Sacred Sites in Alaska (ROSSIA), finished a decade-long, $800,000 effort to revive it. The work included repainting the house, refinishing its floors, and restoring a unique mahogany staircase.
“It’s a landmark,” says Katherine McGlashan, director of Unalaska’s visitors bureau. “It is very precious to our community and our culture.”
photo by: Russian Orthodox Diocese of Sitka and Alaska
The Bishop's House was repainted its vibrant blue color as part of a recently completed restoration.
The Bishop’s House was built in San Francisco in 1882, then disassembled and shipped in pieces more than 2,000 miles to Unalaska, where local merchants put it back together. Despite its name, a bishop never actually lived in the house. The one who commissioned it fell off a ship to Alaska and drowned. The building served as a temporary residence for a local priest and military officers through World War II, and the church is now considering using it as a community gathering place.
A celebration of its restoration last year featured a visit from Bishop Alexei, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska. He became the first bishop to bless the house—and sleep in it.
“To see the exterior and the interior of the house finished, it’s hard to describe,” says Dorothy Gray, the chair of ROSSIA’s board.
“I hope someday to stay in that building,” adds Grant Crosby, a historical architect with the Alaska Regional Office of the National Park Service who worked on the project. “There’s nothing like it out there.”
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