Jesse Lee Home Provided A Sense of Community

Established by the Methodist Church in Unalaska in 1890, the Jesse Lee Home moved to Seward in 1925.  It became the new home first for orphaned Alaska Native with 93 children in residence. The first year, children were taught in the same building where they lived while a new school was built nearby.

In 1926, school began at the Bayview Elementary School. Initially, the school was planned to provide schooling for all Alaska Natives in the area. In the end, only Jesse Lee Home residents were taught there.

During World War II the home was closed temporarily because of concerns it could be a target. The buildings were camouflaged by the US Army. Following the war, the home reopened and welcomed new residents who had lost parents due to the tuberculosis epidemic raging in Alaska villages. In addition, to orphans, children whose parents were being treated at the local tuberculosis sanitarium lived and learned at the school.

Among its more famous residents were Benny Benson, designer of Alaska’s flag; Peter Gordon Gould, founder of Alaska Methodist University; and Simeon Oliver, pianist, composer, and writer.

Students at the Jesse Lee Home were well taught and remain thankful for the dedicated teachers. It is truly unfortunate Alaska Native culture and language was not taught. Instead the home followed US government policy of the 1930s to train Alaska Native people “for absorption into the industrial, agricultural and social life of the North” according to a 1932 newsletter from the home. As a result, many of the Home’s residents are still trying to regain and relearn their heritage, a critical mission of the Qutekcak Native Tribe.

As the residents grew older and took jobs in the community, Seward became their home as the Jessee Lee Home was the last real home they knew.