Completed in 1896, it is the oldest-standing Russian Orthodox church in Alaska[4] and was a major center for the assimilation of the local Native population.

In addition to religious and educational purposes, the church served as an administrative and judicial center for the region.

It rests over the graves of Igumen Nikolai, his assistant and reader Makari Ivanov, and an unrecorded monk.

[7] The church site, including the rectory, cemetery, and chapel, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.

From 1860, Nikolai Militov and Makary Ivanov, in whose honor the Chapel of St. Nicholas was built, traveled the region and vaccinated thousands of Dena'ina from smallpox.