Last week we toured the Russian Bishop’s House in Sitka. The
two-story log structure has been lovingly restored so guests can see how it
might have looked in the 1840’s. There are well-appointed bedrooms, a parlor,
and a dining room table laden with Spode Blue Italian transfer ware. The house
was built by Finnish artisans as a residence for Reverend Ivan Veniaminov, the
first Russian Orthodox Bishop and Archbishop of Alaska. Over the years it also
served as a school, a chapel, priests’ quarters, a community events center and an
inn. Even more impressive than the house was the man it was built for. He was a
skilled woodworker, a scholar, a missionary and a linguist. He devoted many
years to the study of the Tlingit culture and language, because he knew he
could not serve a people he didn’t understand. To put that feat into
perspective, there are 27 sounds in the Tlingit language that exist nowhere
else on earth.
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