12 Days of Christmas Day Twelve

Once St. Luke’s Anglican Church, now The Plum, Souris, MB

The plum in your Christmas pudding! The Souris area was barely settled when the former St. Luke’s Anglican Church was constructed in 1883. As the community grew, two additions were built. There is an enormous amount of Gothic detail in this tiny building: the jerkinhead gable end, double and staggered triple lancet windows and doorway. The L-shape is typical as is the fieldstone foundation. The additions were demolished in 1989. The Souris and District Heritage Club acquired the original 1883 section and relocated it to its present site. It sits perched halfway down the Souris valley and, in plum and chocolate colours, is unmistakable, almost edible. The Plum is now a museum where guides in period costumes offer lively story-tours.  There is a tearoom with a terrace overlooking Victoria Park Bird Sanctuary. Watch a very short video clip of this building that I shot this summer.

“Although it’s been said many times, many ways, Merry Christmas to you”

Reid

12 Days of Christmas Day Eleven

Emmanuel Anglican Church, Holland, MB

This ambitious church is credited to architect Andrew Maxwell and constructed in 1893/94. An extremely pretty and well-maintained Gothic church, it has many enticing details. The tower doorway has a classic Gothic arch, triply repeated to great effect on the left side facing the street. This arch begins the ascension.  The tower is fraught with corner brackets, decorative scrolling and contrasting black and white trim. The slim steeple with narrow gabled openings accelerates the ascent to the ornate finial and beyond.

12 Days of Christmas Day Seven

Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Baldur, MB

Built 1903, this wood frame Gothic church has extraordinary detail that abets its standard design. The square entry tower, supporting an elaborately decorated bell tower and glorious steeple with lively elaborate spire, has fine tracery over the doorway separating coloured panes. On the eight-sided belfry, every opening is topped with a sunburst design and a pediment. The low balustrade with corner pinnacles accentuates the steeple’s angle. The window details and the slight eave returns on the façade create softness to contrast the sharp edges Gothic usually attempts. Note the contribution the spruce tree makes to attention ascension.

12 Days of Christmas Day Six

Silverton United Church, Silverton, MB

Originally built for Presbyterians in 1892, this little wooden church was moved to its present location in the tiny village of Silverton in 1949. The building is a simple rectangular nave pierced by four stubby lancet windows along each side. The major Gothic feature is the large square entry tower with the battlement along the top – very medieval yet somehow congruent with the open Canadian prairie. It benefits greatly from its setting – a wide-open area backed by trees. As you can see, the building and the lot are well maintained.

12 MANITOBA CHURCHES

12 MANITOBA CHURCHES

DAY TEN

St. Paul’s United Church, Souris, MB

          Built in 1907, this huge buff brick church stands regally at a street corner. The enormous tower with a castellated parapet, lively corbelling and tiered buttresses is well proportioned to the massive body of the place and contributes greatly to the vertical orientation of the structure. It rests on a fieldstone foundation that extends about five feet above ground. Two large parapet gables and several smaller ones adorn its roofline, a major chimney with Gothic details is a solid feature and the slightly pointed openings increase its Gothic persuasion. The front window is over two storeys high.

12 MANITOBA CHURCHES

12 MANITOBA CHURCHES

DAY SIX

St. Mark’s Anglican Church, Baldur, MB

           Peeking shyly from behind its veil of summer foliage is pretty little St. Mark’s Anglican. Built in 1898 out of pale brick this tiny Gothic church sits on a low fieldstone foundation. With its green trim it is well camouflaged among the trees.  The small vestibule has a large double doorway with a peaked window cut by simple tracery. The pitch of the roof is moderately steep for an Anglican church.

12 MANITOBA CHURCHES

12 MANITOBA CHURCHES

DAY FOUR

Carberry United Church, Carberry, MB

               The same architect, James White, designed all the churches in Carberry including Carberry United Church. Built in 1903 for the Methodists, this church has a marvelously picturesque roofline. The lower twin spires on the octagonal corner towers conspire with the double steeply pitched gables to increase the elation of the tall spire with its metal finial.

          All the Gothic roof points are softened by many Romanesque arches and labels formed by high relief brickwork. The windows are nearly all stained glass with a modest use of limestone sills. Carberry United rests handsomely on a stone foundation.

12 MANITOBA CHURCHES

12 MANITOBA CHURCHES

DAY THREE

ZionMethodist /United Church, Hamiota, MB

               Built in 1914 and based on a design by architect Rev. Samuel East, this solid Gothic affair features two prominent uneven towers. Square and crenellated along the parapets, the towers are given more visual strength by the corner buttresses. The pitch of the gable between the towers is very appealing. Most openings have pointed arches. The windows are wide lancet divided with tracery and the stained glass is excellent overall.

               The pair of stark front stairways makes the church’s imposing mass more inviting. Seen from the side the stairways suggest the paws of a sphinx with the nave, chancel and the front elevation representing the face and body of the symbol. Originally built by Methodists, it is now a United Church. A rear annex was added in 1968.

 

12 MANITOBA CHURCHES

12 MANITOBA CHURCHES

DAY 2

Christ Church Anglican,  Roblin, MB

              This small wood frame church was built in 1928-29 and exemplifies basic Gothic design. There are the standard pointed lancet windows with simple tracery, a moderately steep gable roof and a tower with heavy dentil and battlement. The battlement gives the little church a well-fortified medieval appearance.

          The tower is somewhat unusual in that it is placed at the corner of the nave and serves as a belfry rather than part of the entrance. The louvered openings on the tower are arched rather than pointed but the light tracery restores the points.

12 MANITOBA CHURCHES

12 MANITOBA CHURCHES

DAY 1

St Paul’s Anglican Church East of Poplar Point on Hwy #26

A humble beginning by the side of the road.

    Lovely little Gothic-influenced St. Paul’s Anglican Church, in the Parish of Baie St. Paul, officially opened in October 1910. An ambitious project for a small congregation, it took six years of creative fundraising to building the wood-frame church. Many original objects can still be found in the church including the Bible, chalice and plate, linens, baptismal bowl and book rest. Gothic touches are the pointed windows with delicate tracery and the steep roof pitch. The wooden roof cresting is unusual.

     An open bell tower topped with a short spire and wooden cross was restored in 1993. The church sits right next to the highway on the north side. There is a small cemetery on the west side of the church.