St. Seraphim Chapel
Historic church in Alaska, United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.[1]
St. Seraphim Chapel | |
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| Location | In Lower Kalskag, Lower Kalskag, Alaska |
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| Coordinates | 61°30′50″N 160°21′59″W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1843 |
| MPS | Russian Orthodox Church Buildings and Sites TR |
| NRHP reference No. | 80004586[1] |
| AHRS No. | RUS-017 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | June 6, 1980 |
| Designated AHRS | May 18, 1973 |
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.[2][3]
