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Under the auspices of Madame Etolin, who was a native of Helsingfors and was educated in the schools of that city, a school was opened and maintained by the Company for the girls of the colony. After the transfer to the United States of the Territory the teachers returned to Russia and the schools were closed.
Continuing east along Lincoln Street a short distance beyond the Cathedral a vacant space on the right marks the spot formerly occupied by the clubhouse, built by Etolin for a home for the clerks, navigators, and other employes of the Company opposite it was situated the foundry and machine shops, while a little farther to the east stood the sawmills, at the mouth of the outlet to Swan Lake.
The fur warehouse stood to the west of the hill and was torn down in 1897-8, while the landing warehouse on the wharf was burned in 1916. These were all built about the time of the incumbency of Etolin, and that time might be termed the Golden Age of the Colony.
Next to this lot is the one formerly occupied by the Lutheran Church, built in the time of Etolin, and in which the first church service was held by Chaplain Rainier of the U. S. Army, after the American occupation. Across the street is the Cathedral of St. Michael, the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Church in Alaska.
Under Baron Wrangell, as assistant to the manager, served Adolph Carlovich Etolin, a native of Finland, who came to the colony as an officer on the war sloop "Kamchatka" in 1817, who sailed in the service of the Company to nearly every port from the Seal Islands of Bering Sea to Chile, who made several voyages around the world, and who was made chief manager in 1840.
Etolin was the most successful in conciliating them of any of the chief managers, and he at one time held a fur fair at Sitka to which peltry was brought from far and near, modeled somewhat upon the idea of the great fur mart of Nizhni Novgorod.
Etolin, and they lived at the old club house a little to the east of the church. A wedding was an elaborate affair, a bridal cake which figured in many mystic signs, tea, coffee, chocolate and champagne; the ladies attired in muslin dresses, white satin shoes, silk stockings, kid gloves, fans, and other necessary appurtances.
Sir George Simpson, Governor-in-Chief of the Honourable, the Hudson's Bay Company, visited Sitka in 1841 and in 1842. He describes the settlement, the natives, and the fur trade, and was entertained at the Castle by Chief Manager Etolin. During his stay he indulged in a Russian steam bath. His humorous description of the details ends with a promise never again to undergo such a castigation.
The church school was advanced to the grade of a seminary in 1849 and there were taught navigation, mathematics, astronomy, bookkeeping, and other branches of learning. Some of the best pupils, both Russian and Creole, were sent to St. Petersburg for more advanced instruction. Chief Manager Etolin was the especial patron of education, and made many improvements in the system.
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