A tribute to Sitka’s tireless civic spirit, this former liberal arts college now serves a range of community and education uses, including a statewide arts camp, a town recreation center, and a specialty college with a curriculum aimed at public service.
For more than 150 years, this site has served as a school, first for industrial training of Alaska Natives, later as a boarding high school, and after 1944 as a small, four-year college. When the college closed in 2007, enterprising Sitkans came to its rescue. The campus is now home to the Sitka Sound Science Center, the Sitka Summer Music Festival, Outer Coast College and the Sitka Fine Arts Camp. Groups have launched restoration efforts of several buildings, which will remain true to its jerkin-head gable roof design under conditions of its status as a National Historic Landmark. While here, check out Sheldon Jackson Museum (an eight-sided building on the south end of campus.) Across the street at the science center, stop by at noon Saturday when Pearl the octopus gets fed a ration of shrimp.
