February 13, 2011

121 East 12th Street

Posthumous
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church/Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall/Black Sheep Restaurant
North Vancouver, B.C. Canada

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church was given a permit to be built on this site at 121 East 12th Street  in 1933.  The architect was O. Ormrod.  The cost of the building was projected to be $2,500.  The first listing of the church in the City Directory was 1934. On  October 20, 1944 John Gibson and Dorothy Bissett were married there.  In 1950 the Pastor was the Rev. H. A. Berlis.

In 1955 it was rented to the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall and remained so  until it was sold by the Presbyterian Church  in 1955. (REF.) It was run as the Black Sheep Restaurant from 1976 to 2000.  The site is now that of a twelve unit apartment complex.

West side of Black Sheep Restaurant

August 3, 1940 Gladys Christianson and William Downie Jr. (See Blog Post December 22, 2010.)  were married in St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church.  Their's was a wedding with a very special guest.

Around the time of the wedding William's best friend, Dave Richie, had been part of the crew on the ship Ontario Light.  The ship was in Perambucal, Brazil when he became ill.  The captain called for a doctor to come from shore, but by the time he arrived on board Dave had died from a kidney  ailment. 

The day of the wedding William did not yet know of the death of his friend.  But he did know that the last time he had seen him Dave had said, "I'll have to dance at your wedding."

Dave's mother, dad, sister Grace, and Dave's dog Punch lived at 17 or 18^th and Grand Boulevard. Punch was mostly spaniel, black with a bit of white. Before they left to go to the wedding the family put Punch in the basement. 

While Gladys and William were in front of the church at the altar they could hear a scuffling.  Then the pastor, Rev. McLean-Bell said, "What do we have here?"

Gladys and William Downie, 1940

Gladys and William looked down and there was Punch between them. 

Grace left the wedding and took the dog home, but Punch had done his best to help Dave keep his word. (From research at the North Vancouver Archives and interview with Gladys Downie for the Year 2000 Project, Your House/Our Home.)

Demolition: The building was demolished in the year 2000.

Photo: Top photo of the Black Sheep Restaurant taken in 2000 by SW. 

               Wedding photo of Gladys and William Downie Jr.
Reference: History of St. Andrew's and Stephen's Presbyterian Church given to
               SW in 1913 by church secretary Angela Edmonds.

                                                                                                                               February 6, 2011

 

530 East 12th Street

Happy 101st Birthday
St. Agnes Anglican Church
North Vancouver, B.C. Canada

2011 is the 101st birthday year of St. Agnes Anglican Church at 530 East 12th Street in the City of North Vancouver.  This "country church in the city" was started as the second mission church of St. John's Anglican Church. The name St. Agnes was chosen December 8, 1909. The church was built in 1910 by contractor H. W. Young.  In 1927 the church hall on the lane behind the church was built by the H. W. Young as well. 

The original entrance to the church sanctuary was through a door on the south west face of the building.  The altar was in the alcove on the east wall and the dark wood pews lined a center aisle in a traditional manner.  Beautiful stained glass windows decorated  the north, south and east  walls of the sanctuary.  The church hall was only accessible by going outside and entering through the hall's west facing door.  In the 1970's the alter was moved into the body of the church and the alcove was fitted with pews for the choir.  In the 1990's the entrance door to the church and sanctuary was changed to the south east side of the building.  The altar was moved to the west side of the sanctuary with a middle aisle and traditional pew placement. The new south east door made possible an entrance hall not only to the sanctuary, but also to the church office and church hall.  It was no longer necessary to go outside to go to the church hall for "coffee hour".  Around 2002 the configuration of the sanctuary changed again.  Now the altar was placed on the north wall of the sanctuary, between two of the stained glass windows.  The pews were arranged around the altar in a  horseshoe pattern.  The average Sunday Worship attendance is 54 and the number of households that are members is 72. The priest is the Rev. Keith
Gilbert.

                                                                         Sanctuary
                                Arch with baptismal font was original altar area
                             Left side of sanctuary with cross is present altar area

           

                     Stained glass window in arch of original altar area      

            

 St. Agnes was a 13 year old girl of  Rome who was put to death because she refused to renounce her Christian faith. There is a church built over the spot where she was buried in Rome.  It can still be seen today.  Keats wrote a poem about her life "The Eve of St. Agnes". 

                                                                      St. Agnes
                                                       Memorial Side Window


On Sunday mornings  a rope hanging on the south wall of the  sanctuary is pulled, and the church bell signals to the community that it is time for worship.  The congregation of the "country church in the city" is ready to greet its neighbors.

Thank You: To Shirley Marcino for confirming my memories of the 
              church sanctuary. To church secretary and Priest Rev. Keith         
              Gilbert for aid in photographing the interior of the building in 2011.
Photos: Taken January 2010 by SW.  (Note the peaked roof of the church hall
              can be seen behind the church.)
              Black and White photos taken in 2004 on file at the North Vancouver
             Archives.
             Color photo taken for the Y2K Project on file at the North Vancouver
            Archives.
Resources: City of North Vancouver Heritage Inventory 1994.
              Sunday January 24th St. Agnes Anglican Church bulletin.

                             

                                                                                                                       January 9, 2011

1044 St. Georges Avenue

St. Andrew's United Church
North Vancouver, B.C. Canada

St. Andrew's United Church at 1044 St. George's Avenue in the City of North Vancouver was built in 1912 as St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church.  The architects were Alexander and Brown.  However, in 1903 the first St. Andrew's congregation met in Dorman's Shack (See Blog Post 9/2/12.) on East 13th Street and Lonsdale Avenue.  The first church they built was in 1904 and located on East 6th Street facing Victoria Park. (See Blog Post 11/18/12.)  The "newest" church built in 1912 is the one we see today, a shingle-clad adaptation in the Gothic Revival style.

Sanctuary 2011

The banked nave of the sanctuary has only two side aisles with the bulk of the congregation seated in the wide central pews.  During the Christmas season tall candle holders light the church from the ends of the pews. The altar in the front of the sanctuary is sided by two transepts, with the piano in one and the choir seated in the other.  The distinctive heavenly blue vaulted ceiling is transversed with jointed wooden beams and beading. A large multipaneled stained glass windows on the south wall of the balcony features a representation of St. Andrew.  The exterior of this window is seen above the front doors of the church.

Vaulted Ceiling of the Sanctuary 2011

In 1925 the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational Churches in Canada joined together to form the United Church of Canada.  The following year, 1926, two churches in North Vancouver, Sixth Street Methodist at the south west corner of St. Georges Avenue which had opened in 1910, and St. Andrew's Presbyterian joined to form St. Andrew's United Church.   At the time of the union, St. Andrew's had a membership of 340 and the value of its property was $19,000.  Sixth Street Methodist had a membership of 140 and the value of its property was  $7,050. Some of the members of the Presbyterian congregation chose not to join and moved their worship services in the Oddfellow's Hall in the old 6th Street Methodist Church.  In 1934 they built a church at 121 East 12th Street. (See Blog Post at 2/13/11.) They met in this church until 1952 when they joined with the congregation of St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church to form St. Andrew's and St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church at 2641 Chesterfield Avenue.(See Blog Post 3/3/13.)

Balcony Stained Glass Windows 2011

In the early 1970's there was some talk of the St. Andrew's United Church  being demolished and an apartment building being built on the site.  The church would continue at that address, but in the street floor of the new building.  This idea was never carried out.


Directly behind the church and across the lane to the north is the St. Andrew's United Education Centre. Here over the years many programs have been provided for the community. In the 1970's there was the Margaret Fulton Centre, an adult day care to give a daytime break to adult children caring for senior parents that benefited from supervision.  To the east of the Church Hall is St. Andrew's Park, a children's park where in recent years an annual Teddy Bear's Picnic has been held. From the front steps of the church you can look down St. George's Avenue right to the blue waters of Burrard Inlet.


Today the inspiring church spire of St. Andrew's continues to act as a witness to the Christain Community in North Vancouver. 


Book: Heritage Inventory, City of North Vancouver 1994.
Reference: St. Andrew's United Church, North Vancouver, 1925-1975 a history 
                by J.S. Terry.  Available at the North Vancouver City Library.
Photos: Exterior photo taken March 2002 by SW.  Interior photos taken
                January 2011 by SW.
               Black and White photos taken in 2004 on file at the North Vancouver
               Archives.
               Color photo taken for the Y2K Project on file at the North Vancouver
               Archives.

**********

Prayer

God, be with the persecuted Christians through out the world. Amen (SW.)