he
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.

CHAPTER VI

SOCIAL LIFE

At the top of the kekoor, or the Baranof Hill as it was called in recent
years, there stood a building occupied during Russian days as a
residence by the chief managers of the Russian American Company. The one
known to the residents and visitors of the earlier days of the American
occupation was known as the Baranof Castle, although Baranof himself
never lived in it. There were three, if not four different buildings
which occupied that position. The first to be placed there was built at
once upon the founding of the post and is described by Resanof in his
letters to the Company as being a very "Unpretentious building, and
poorly constructed." Before the close of Baranof's administration,
however, according to the account of Captain Golofnin, it was an
establishment well built and furnished with some degree of luxury.

[Illustration: The Baranof Castle. Built in 1837 for the official
residence of the chief managers of the Russian American Company, and
occupied from the time of Kuprianof until 1867. It was the headquarters
building of the Commanding Officers of the U. S. troops 1867 to 1877, and
was destroyed by fire in 1894. The U. S. Agricultural Department
building occupies the site at the present time.]

The structure known as the Baranof Castle, which stood on the hill at
the time of the transfer to the United States, would seem to be the
third building constructed on the site, was completed about 1837,[13]
and was burned to the ground on the morning of March 17th, 1894.

The historic building was the scene of many interesting events, and
sheltered many distinguished persons.

The first mistress who presided over the mansion on the kekoor was
Madame Yanovski, a daughter of Baranof and the wife of Lieutenant
Yanovski, the third chief manager of the Russian American Company.

Lady Wrangell was the first to come from Russia to preside as the First
Lady of Sitka, and she was succeeded by Madame Kupreanof, who is said to
have crossed Siberia and the Pacific Ocean to accompany her husband to
his post. Sir Edward Belcher gives a spirited account of a ball given in
his honor, in the castle, which was then, in 1837, just completed. He
says: "The evening passed most delightfully," although "few could
converse with their partners