The town of New Archangel, now named Sitka, was the capital of Russia's American colonies. Building 29, which served as a residence for Russian-American Company employees, is the only surviving Russian-American Company building in Sitka. It stands just a few doors from the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel and a short walk from the Russian Bishop's House.

Historically, Building 29 was one of many massive log buildings with steeply pitched roofs which served the commercial and administrative needs of the Russian-American Company on this busy street leading up from the wharves. William Ball described the buildings of Sitka as they appeared in 1865, two years before the United States purchased Alaska: "The houses were all of logs, but painted a dull yellow, the metal roofs were red and with the emerald green spire of the church, projected against the dark evergreen of the adjacent hills, presented an extremely picturesque appearance. It was quite unlike anything else in America, and seemed to belong to a world of its own."

Because company life was communal, buildings were large to accommodate multiple living quarters, corporate kitchen, bakery, laundry, and storage facilities. Massive round logs were used for warehouses and common residences. Important company administrative buildings and officers' residences were hewn "so as to leave no crevices, with the internal and external logs so well dressed as to be suitable for painting or papering." Building 29 was one of the latter carefully built and finely crafted structures.

Source: Excerpted from the NRHP nomination submitted in 1987.

Tilson Building

This large frame house was constructed as a Russian residence about 1835. Although there has been some modification the building is thought to be the finest remaining example of Russian secular architecture in Alaska.

Source: Marker mounted on the façade.