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 The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

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 The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, 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. (continuation sheet from thematic resources document) and

References

1843 establishments in the Russian Empire Buildings and structures in Bethel Census Area, Alaska Churches completed in 1843 Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Alaska Russian Orthodox church buildings in Alaska Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Bethel Census Area, Alaska {{Alaska-church-stub

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References