St. Seraphim Chapel | |
Nrhp Type: | nrhp |
Location: | In Lower Kalskag, Lower Kalskag, Alaska |
Coordinates: | 61.5139°N -160.3664°W |
Built: | 1843 |
Added: | June 6, 1980 |
Area: | less than one acre |
Refnum: | 80004586 |
Designated Other1: | Alaska Heritage Resources Survey |
Designated Other1 Name: | Alaska Heritage Resources Survey |
Designated Other1 Date: | May 18, 1973 |
Designated Other1 Color: |
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Designated Other1 Abbr: | AHRS |
Designated Other1 Number: | RUS-017 |
Designated Other1 Num Position: | bottom |
The St. Seraphim Chapel, also known as the Old Church, is a historic Russian Orthodox church in Lower Kalskag, Alaska, United States, in Bethel Census Area, that may include a portion built in 1843, or it may have all been built later. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The community has a 1975-built new church used for Russian Orthodox services; this is an old church that is either a later enlargement of an original church built probably in 1843 or it is wholly a later 1800s replacement. The old church reflects the influence of traditional three-part Russian Orthodox ecclesiastical architecture in America expressed in the style of a log cabin. Balanced in the center, it is divided into three parts: vestibule, nave, and altar chamber. Each section is built by squared logs with corner dovetailing and straight butt joints at points where the logs are shorter. A 1979 survey suggested that no other extant log church in Alaska (and perhaps nowhere else in all of North America) of its age possessed comparable construction.[1] [2]