It is one of the oldest churches in Alaska, and is significant as the site from which missionaries brought their religion to the local Aleut people.

The church was declared a National Historic Landmark for its architecture, and for its role in the history and culture of Alaska.

A red carpet leads through the nave to the eastern end of the building, where the main iconostasis and altar are located.

In 1824 Reverend Ivan Veniaminov arrived in Unalaska as its first permanent priest, and led the construction of a church not far from the site of the 1808 chapel.

He developed an alphabet for the Aleut language, and established a school to teach the natives to read and write.

Veniaminov spent ten years in Unalaska before being assigned to Sitka, where he engaged in similar activities with respect to the Tlingit people.

He was, during his long career in Alaska, a significant ethnographic resource, noted even by modern historians for the quality of his observations.

By this time Unalaska had achieved its place as the major port in the western Aleutians, and had grown into a small town.

The district Kedrovsky oversaw extended to include the Fox and Pribilof island groups, and to communities on the Alaskan peninsula.