Forest Service House

Forest Service House. . This two-story, wood clapboard and gambrel roofed cottage-style house was constructed during the summer of 1916 by the United States Department of Commerce, Coast and Geodetic Survey. Prior to the purchase of Alaska by the United States from the Russian Empire in 1867, the hill upon which this structure stands was the site of a public garden, known as the Russian Tea Garden., This house was built originally to provide office and living quarters for the staff of the first permanent geomagnetic observatory. The Sitka Magnetic Observatory, with a latitude of 61° was, at the time of establishment in 1901, the nearest to the magnetic north pole of any of the then existing permanent magnetic observatories. In 1922, cables were connected between this house and the Magnetic Observatory, enabling the Geodetic Observatory staff to monitor the Observatory's magnetometer from the house. The Sitka Magnetic Observatory's measurement of changes in the intensity of the earth's magnetic field provided the Coast and Geodetic Survey with the information necessary to notify navigators and surveyors of any variations from true north they could expect in their respective compass needle reading., This structure served as both the seismological and the geomagnetic observatory for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey after the 1929 installation of a single component Wood-Anderson seismometer in the basement's northwest corner. Readings from the seismometer, taken between 1929 and 1940, located and measured the extent of any movement of the earth in the area of the North Pacific; these readings were especially important in the determination of earthquake epicenters., In 1940, this house was placed in the custody of the United States Department of the Army for use by the Alaska Communications System (Amy Signal Corps). In 1961, title of the house was transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide office and living quarters for Tongass National Forest personnel. From that time this structure has been known as Forest Service House., On November 25, 1966, the Forest Service House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.