PARISH FACILITIES

There are three buildings that make up the Parish properties: the Church, the Yates Building, and the Tobin Building. The Vestry of St. John's has been managing these buildings for the Diocese of Alaska for about 35 years.  All the buildings are wooden structures that require varying degrees of repairs.

The Church is located on the corner of Mission and Bawden Street in the center of downtown Ketchikan. The building was originally a one-story building but it was raised in the 1920's to add the undercroft making it a two-story building. The main entry on the lower floor accesses both the sanctuary and the undercroft, which was completely remodeled in 1983-1984 to include an up-to-date kitchen, nursery, toilets, parish hall, and coatroom. The furnace room is located off the parish hall. Two outside entrances access the parish hall-one of them wheelchair-accessible. The parish hall can accommodate 80-100 people for dinners, luncheons, etc., and is also used for Sunday school, meetings and conferences.  The upper floor embodies the entry to the Narthex, Nave, Choir, Sanctuary, Sacristy, and Vestry.  There is an outside exit from the Sacristy, and a wheelchair access entrance through the Vestry.  Seating capacity of the sanctuary is approximately 90-100, including choir and servers.  The undercroft provides overflow seating, with viewing via closed-circuit TV when needed.  The church parking lot has some  parking spaces available to its members.  The church building had concrete paint applied to it in the 1970's, but in a few years the paint had yellowed and pieces had fallen off.  

The Yates Building, located across the church parking lot from the church, was originally used as a hospital named Arthur Yates Memorial Hospital.  It has an interesting history of outreach use since 1923 when a larger hospital  was built and the building was no longer used as a hospital.  For many years following this change it was used to publish the Alaska Sportsman magazine.  It has housed a boarding house, an art-co-operative, and the Chamber of Commerce office, then more recently it was used as the Seamen’s Center.   It is not in use at the present time.  

The Two Story Tobin Building was built by the owner of the Alaska Sportsman in the mid 1940’s to house the print shop on the lower floor and his living quarters on the upper floor.  The Tobin Building housed the St John’s Preschool until it closed and now has the Church Office downstairs with an apartment upstairs rented for income.

In 1981 all three buildings were faced with insulated white vinyl siding, thereby improving both the heating and the appearance of the property.  But in the mid 1990's damage due to lack of air circulation under the vinyl was noted on the church building, so the vinyl siding was removed and cedar siding placed to preserve the integrity of the church building.  Restoration work on the steeple was done about the same time.  St. John's is included in the city's walking tour, and elicits many favorable comments from visitors for its beautiful old native Red Cedar interior and stained glass windows.  A local grant is paying for a new sprinkler system in the Church and undercroft.

St. John's does not have a Rectory.