SITKA Administrative History

Chapter 5:
SITKA NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK, 1966-1986 (continued)

Expansion of the monument

Sitka residents became interested in preserving its historic buildings and interpreting the community's history early in the 1960s. They hoped to increase tourism to their town, and began elaborate preparations to celebrate the Alaska purchase centennial in 1967. A major waterfront redevelopment program was carried out in 1964. After the January 2, 1966, fire that destroyed the Russian Orthodox cathedral and three other historic structures in downtown Sitka, community members and city officials began to work with the National Park Service to plan for preservation and perhaps, reconstruction, of buildings to commemorate Sitka's long, rich history. The San Francisco Service Center conducted a field study at Sitka in 1967. In October of that year, George B. Hartzog, Jr., Director of the National Park Service, and the assistant and regional directors met with Alaska's Governor Walter J. Hickel and discussed the service's interests in the state. The possible expansion of Sitka National Monument was one of the topics discussed. [288]

Theodosius, the Russian Orthodox Bishop of Sitka, met with representatives of the National Park Service in San Francisco in February 1968. At that meeting he expressed the need for assistance from the National Park Service to preserve the historic sites and buildings in church ownership at Sitka. That spring, groups such as the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce were approached to support the idea.

The same year the National Park Service published Sitka Alter natives Study. The report considered three possible courses of action regarding Sitka National Monument. The first was no new acquisitions; the park service would cooperate with other managers of historic properties at Sitka. The second was to acquire the Russian Mission, as the Russian Bishop's House was then called. The final alternative was to acquire the Russian Mission and the reconstructed blockhouse in downtown Sitka. At the blockhouse site, the plan called for construction of a complex of buildings that recreated a part of Russian Sitka. Proposed structures at the site included a section of the palisade, the blockhouse, the Native Russian Orthodox Chapel, and Native cultural structures including a small log school and community house. The study team recommended the third alternative. It also supported redesignating the monument, which was created by presidential proclamation, a national historical park, a category created by Congress.

The study argued for acquisition of the Russian Bishop's House because it was the most important remaining Russian-built structure at Sitka. The owner, the Russian Orthodox Church, was not financially able to provide the desperately needed stabilization work. The State of Alaska did not appear to be in a position to preserve the building. If it did not become public property, the authors of the study argued, the building would probably be destroyed.

A city-sponsored plan, Sitka Historical Sites--A Plan for Redevelopment, was adopted in 1969. It endorsed the alternatives study prepared by the National Park Service. The city's plan also recommended that the National Park Service manage Castle Hill and Old Sitka historic sites, properties at that time part of the Alaska State Park system. [289]

These two plans were presented to Alaska's congressional delegation. In 1971, Senator Ted Stevens introduced S1497 concerning additions to Sitka National Monument. Representative Nick Begich introduced a similar bill in the house, HR5803. The bills proposed acquiring the Russian Bishop's House. The block house acquisition was not part of the introduced legislation. The City of Sitka, Sitka Historical Society, and the Alaska Historical Society expressed strong support for the bills. Sitka National Monument Superintendent Daniel R. Kuehn traveled to Washington, D.C. , where he testified at Congressional hearings on the proposed legislation. [290]

Public Law 92-501 was signed by President Richard M. Nixon on Alaska Day, October 18, 1972. Sitka National Monument was redesignated Sitka National Historical Park. The law also enlarged the fort site unit to include the city and state tidelands and a strip of land along Sawmill Creek Road, although the park did not own the lands. Finally, Congress appropriated funds for the National Park Service to purchase the Russian Bishop's House. The act stated that acquisition of the house was for the purpose of "commemorating czarist Russia's exploration and colonization of Alaska. . . . " [291] Transfer of ownership was finalized in 1973 after satisfactory resolution of a civil suit brought against the Orthodox Church in America concerning two feet of land on the west end of the property. [292] The park service paid $106,000 for the land and buildings at the site.

The National Park Service acquired the lot, the house, and two small structures, a school built in 1897 and a residence built in 1887. Several years later, in 1976, the Diocese of Sitka and Alaska of the Orthodox Church in America signed an agreement providing for donation or permanent loan to the National Park Service of church objects in the buildings. For its part, the National Park Service agreed to care for and store the loaned items and to permit the Church to use the chapel in the Russian Bishop's House on certain liturgical occasions.

The reconstructed blockhouse in downtown Sitka was not mentioned in the law. Efforts to transfer management responsibility to the State of Alaska failed, as did attempts to get ownership of land transferred to the park service from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The park service continued to have the responsibility for maintaining the site. Its officials continued to recommend that the site be transferred to state ownership.

The 1972 legislation was important not only for the property and money it added to the Sitka facility, but also because it gave Congressional sanction to a park system unit created by presidential proclamation.