Caption on image: The Photo Shop, Sitka, Alaska PH Coll 334.Photo Shop.1

The remote Sitka National Cemetery is located half a mile east of the center of town and is dominated by the natural beauty of the mountains and waters of Sitka Bay. The only access to Sitka is by air, marine highway or weekly ferry from Seattle. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis laid out the cemetery at Sitka in the late 19th century. Most of the interments were soldiers and sailors from the Marine base and Naval hospital. Subsequently, the land was loaned to the U.S. Department of the Interior as a home for indigent prospectors. From 1912 until 1921, the cemetery was practically abandoned and a dense growth of trees and underbrush grew up almost obscuring the site. In 1920, representatives of the Sitka American Legion post wrote to the Secretary of War calling attention to the neglected cemetery and asking for remedial action; they were told no funds were available. In 1921, they appealed to the Secretary of the Navy, who allocated $1,200 toward reconditioning the site. In 1922, the Secretary of the Navy turned the issue of cemetery maintenance over to the War Department. In June 1924, upon the recommendation of the Alaska governor and the American Legion, President Calvin Coolidge signed an executive order designating the site Sitka National Cemetery. Since then, there have been several acreage modifications: in 1925, a revision of the executive order reduced the acreage from 3.98 acres to 1.19 acres; in 1957, Sheldon Jackson Junior College donated approximately one acre; a donation of 0.20 acres was made in 1959 by the Board of National Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the United States; and the Department of Interior transferred approximately two acres in the mid-1980s. Sitka National Cemetery currently encompasses 4.3 acres. One of the more notable burials at Sitka is John Green Brady, governor of the Territory of Alaska from 1897 to 1906. Brady had come to Sitka as a Presbyterian missionary and later became commissioner and registrar of the Land Office, where he served until the president appointed him governor. He died in Sitka of a stroke on Dec. 17, 1918. In fall 1924, Brady’s wife returned to the territory and placed a large boulder over his grave. There is a romantic legend attached to one headstone in the cemetery. During the days of military occupation, a captain and a lieutenant who were close friends both courted a Russian girl named Nadia. When Nadia indicated that she preferred the lieutenant, the captain appeared to accept his loss. Some time later both men left on a hunting trip together. After several hours, the captain staggered back to the village carrying the body of his companion. He said the lieutenant had accidentally shot himself. Subsequently, after trying again to win the heart of Nadia, the captain was found dead with a note under his body. The note explained that he had challenged the lieutenant to a duel and they used the hunting trip as an excuse. He had lost both Nadia and his best friend and no longer had the courage to live. The young lieutenant who died by the hand of his closest friend was one of the first burials at Sitka National Cemetery. The Photo Shop was in operation from ca. 1922 to 1972 in Sitka. It was founded by Czerney D. Geyer, who sold it in 1924 to Luella Gilpatrick Claire (daughter of James Henry Gilpatrick ), who later became Luella Smith. She operated the Photo Shop until 1972.

• Subjects (LCTGM): Cemeteries--Alaska--Sitka; Tombs & sepulchral monuments--Alaska--Sitka
• Subjects (LCSH): Sitka National Cemetery (Sitka, Alaska); Sitka (Alaska)--Buildings, structures, etc.