March 20, 2011

Saint Mary the Virgin Anglican Church
Metchosin, B.C. Canada

"St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church of Canada, Enter Rest and Pray" is on the sign outside the church at 4354 Metchosin Road in Metchosin, B.C. Metchosin is on the south west coast of Vancouver Island and about half way between Victoria, B.C.'s capital, and Sooke. It is about a 30 minutes drive from Victoria to this small town of 5,000 people on the Juan de Fuca Strait.

"The name Metchosin is the anglicised version of the native "Smets-Schosen", which means "place of stinking fish". Local legend maintains that many years prior to the Europeans' arrival, an orca beached and died, and that everywhere that could smell it rotting became part of Metchosin. The town's museum, which was once its one-room school before an increasing population necessitated a larger building, claims to have vertebrae from the animal on display. Metchosin's community symbol is, perhaps unsurprisingly, an orca." (See Link 2.)



"St. Mary The Virgin Anglican Church was consecrated on October 22, 1873. It is the third oldest Anglican Church in continuous use on Vancouver Island. This small church is still used as a place of worship, but only for special services, funerals, and a Christmas Eve service. Two acres of land was donated for churchyard by Metchosin resident John Witty, sadly, was also the first to be buried on these grounds." (See Link 1.)

A white picket fence with its wrought iron gate surround the small white clapboard church with its steeple and triple chancel window. Scattered through the grassy church yard of spring flowers are grave stones of
parishioners. One of these is a memorial to John Witty.

Photo: Taken in 2006 by SW.
Link 1: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM37RX_St_Mary_The_Virgin_Metchosin_BC
Link 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metchosin,_British_Columbia

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Prayer

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

                                                                                                         March 13, 2011

330 Boone Avenue

St. Aloysius Catholic Church at Gonzaga
Spokane, Washington

Gonzaga University in Spokane Washington sits on the bank of the Spokane River just north of the downtown area. Gonzaga University was started by the Jesuits in  1887 on a 320 acre of land purchased in 1881 for $936 by Fr. Joseph Cataldo. "It was named Gonzaga College after Italian Aloysius Gonzaga, the patron saint of youth." (Link 2) When the building was completed it was the largest building in Spokane except for the County Courthouse.  The tuition and board for the 20 students at that time was $250 for the ten month term.  A second building was added in 1892. Today 5,000 students attend Gonzaga University. "The campus now includes 94 buildings on 131 acres...Gonzaga employs over 1,200 people " (Link 2)  making it one of the major employers in Spokane.  The university is not only known for its academic excellence, but for its basketball team, the Bulldogs,  affectionately called the Zaggs, and for one of its alumni, Bing Crosby.  Bing Crosby grew up in the area and at age 13 served as an altar boy at the campus church, St. Aloysius.

St. Aloysius Catholic Church is at 330 Boone Ave. and is the eastern anchor of Gonzaga University.  A framed church was originally built in 1881.  It could accommodate a congregation of a few hundred people.  The church and the University recreation hall were moved in 1899. And in 1911 a new St. Aloysius Church designed by Preusse and Little of Spokane was dedicated. This church seats 1100 people.  It is190 feet long, 110 feet wide, and 124 feet high.

"The bell in the east spire was constructed by the Meneely Bell Company of Troy, New York.  It was dedicated on Christmas Day, 1913 and it is named Catherine." (See Reference.)

"The present St. Aloysius church was dedicated October 12, 1911.  It has the largest seating capacity among Catholic churches in Spokane, able to accommodate 1,100 worshippers.  The church, which replaced an original wooden structure, was designed by the architectural firm of Preusse and Little of Spokane.  In an adapted Romanesque style, its many rounded arches and graceful circular features help to soften construction lines.  The church, begun in 1909, took almost exactly two years to build at a cost of $176,125.

Nave and High Altar

" Interior features of St. Aloysius church include oak woodwork, altars and ambo of matching Italian marble.  The high altar was designed and built by the DePrato Studio in Italy.  It stands 26 feet high and is 18 feet wide at its base. The true pipe organ with 37 ranks of keys was acquired in 1927 and rebuilt in the early sixties.  The beautiful gold pipes are ornamental and conceal the actual working pipes behind them." (See Reference.)

Pipe Organ, Balcony, and 3 of the Stations of the Cross



The Stations of the Cross, in three-dimensional plaster, were made by the Mayers’ Studio of Germany.  This firm was also responsible for the magnificent stained glass windows (25 by 12 feet) flanking the nave, the great rose windows surmounting the east and west balconies, and the smaller niche windows, depicting Jesuit saints and the life of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, positioned around the apse. 

In recent years, four new windows have been added depicting  St. Jude, St. Francis Xavier Cabrini, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.



"The distinctive twin spires, housing the great bell Catherina, rise 164 feet  above the surrounding area. The crosses topping each spire add another 10 feet, and are visible from vantage points throughout the city."(Link 1.)

The east Rose Window acquired through donations of the Irish community.

The church is open for visitors and for private prayer during daylight hours throughout the year.  Brochures providing a self-guided tour are available in the narthex near the main doors and near the Visitors' Guestbook, and guided tours are scheduled at intervals after the Sunday Masses.   Docents can be available for group tours throughout the year by appointment; call 313-7006 to schedule.

Photos: Taken in 2006 and 2011 by SW.
Link 1: http://www.stalschurch.org/aboutus/index.htm
Link 2: http://www.gonzaga.edu/Academics/Libraries/Foley-Library/Departments/Special-Collections
/exhibitions/GonzagaHistory1887.asp
Link 3: http://www.gonzaga.edu/Academics/Libraries/Foley-Library/Departments/Special-Collections/Collections/Bing-Crosby-Collection/CrosbyandGonzaga.asp
Reference: Pamphlet, Welcome to St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church.

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The Walrus Capital of the World
Savoonga Presbyterian Church
Savoonga, Alaska

"The Walrus Capital of the World" is Savoonga, Alaska on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. To get there you must first fly to Anchorage then 449 miles north west via Nome and weather permitting, to Savoonga. There in the land of the midnight sun where it snows September to May live 643 people, mainly Yupik Eskimos with relatives in Siberia. Those who aren't Yupik are the teachers mostly from "the lower 48" at the Hogarth Kingeekuk Memorial School for students kindergarten to grade 12.  In 1900 reindeer were introduced to St. Lawrence Island. The herd grew to over 10,000 by 1917. The town of Savoonga grew from a reindeer camp established in 1916 to a village in 1930. Under the Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 it received joint title to St. Lawrence Island with its only other town, Gambell. The main subsistence livelihood is hunting of whales and walrus and carving of figures from walrus ivory and whale bone. The main outdoor sport is snowmobiling.


The Savoonga Presbyterian Church has been there as long as April, the Kingeekuk Memorial School secretary remembers. A large bell sits  to the left of the church doors. April also remembers that it would ring during church services when she was about 10 years old.  That was 28 years ago. She said today there are about ten people in church on a Sunday morning. The present minister of the church is Jacob Meadows. However, there isn't always a minister and then members of the community lead the Sunday services.  Buildings other than the school, housing, and the two churches are: the store, the post office,  a coffee shop, a medical clinic, a bingo hall with a snack shop, an airplane hanger, and a government building. 

Research: Thank you to April, school secretary at Kingeekuk Memorial School 
          in Savoonga, Alaska. 
Link:http://savoongapresbyterianchurch.blogspot.com/
Link: http://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/Savoonga,_Alaska
Photo: Taken by teacher Laura (Wilson) Misner 2006.

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Prayer

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

                                                                                                                      February 27, 2011

1550 Philip Avenue

Posthumous
Jehovah Witness's on Philips
North Vancouver, B.C. Canada

Around the corner from St. Richard's Anglican Church (see Blog January 2, 2011) is the Tomahawk Restaurant. But this building qualifies for the Blog Sunday Church Feature because it was built as a Jehovah's Witness Church. It was built in 1956 for $6500. If you sit at one of the tables at the Tomahawk and look at the bones of the building, you can imagine a church congregation sitting there. The room is a long rectangle which would facilitate a center aisle bordered by rows of seating.The ceiling is pointed and there are lines of small windows at the tops of the side walls. The partition at one end, blocking off part of the kitchen even looks like it could have been the backdrop for an alter. However, the native wall mural, paddles and artifacts remind you that you are indeed in the Tomahawk Restaurant.


Before the Jehovah Witness Church moved into the 1550 Philip Ave. building, services were held across the street in one of the store fronts in the Norgate Shopping Center. The Tomahawk BBQ started in 1926 on the north side of Marine Drive at Mackay Road.  Then it moved to the shopping center.  At this time it was a drive-in. It was in 1962 that the Jehovah Witness congregation moved out and Chick Chamberlain brought his Tomahawk Restaurant to the building on Philips Ave. He modified the building with a $1000 addition.


Photo: Taken in 2009 by SW.
Books: City of North Vancouver Heritage Inventory 1994.

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Prayer

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

                                                                                                                                       2/20/11

Posthumous
Lynnmour United Church
North Vancouver, B.C. Canada


According to the City Directories, Lynnmour United Church on Mountain Highway started out as River Avenue Methodist Church in Vancouver on River Ave. east of Fraser St. This was 1915 and the Rev. Wm. Pearson was the pastor. During the 1920's although the location and name remained the same the address listing changed to 941 River Ave., then to 900 East River Ave., then to 945 River Ave. East, and finally to Marine Dr. East. In 1926 the church became the River Avenue United Church with Rev. B. Black as pastor. In 1929 the address was listed as 1195 block East Marine. And finally in 1930 with only a Sunday School listed the address was 1195 Marine Dr. That address was vacant in 1931.


The big change for the church came in 1933. This was the year the building was "taken apart, hauled away to North Vancouver and resurrected at Lynn Creek" (North Shore news 9/21/62). Here at E/S St. Denis it became Lynnmour United Church. In 1944 the church address was listed as both E/S St. Denis and E/S Mountain Highway with Rev. Allan as pastor. The address changed to 700 block in 1957 and 600 block in 1959. 

1103 Mountain Highway

1962 Church

At Easter in 1962 a new church at a different site "up the hill",  the West Lynnmour United Church at 1103 Mountain Highway, was announced in the North Shore News. The pastor was Rev. Allan I. V. Dawe.  The congregation finally joined that of the Lynn Valley United Church in 1966.

In 1964 the old church was vacant. And in 1964 the first of a series of businesses bought the building. They included Inanex Woodwork Shop, Pragon Electric, Metallic Design, and finally from 1975 to 1998 Bero Mettalic Design. The building was demolished in the spring of 2004. Now in 2010 the land will be part of the new Seylynn Village Project.


Researcher: Thank you to Jim Lawrence.
Photo: Top photo, copy of photo in The Province, September 21, 1962. Bottom photo taken in 2005 by SW.  The building is now a residence.
Link:http://www.dnv.org/upload/documents/District_History/181966.pdf

                                                                                                      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.