Second time's a charm! The first time I attempted to take photos of this unique church, it happened to be under renovations. New paint, new roof shakes, etc. I was told they'd be done in a week. There was no way to get a good photo with construction debris all over, so I left. Fast forward a few weeks...the day was warm, the sky was gorgeous, the smoky haze that was here the day before was gone..no time like the present, so we were off!
Holy Trinity Anglican Church is near Pine Lake, AB. It was built during 1902-1903 and was listed on the Alberta Register of Historic Places in 2009. It was designed by Calgary architect James Llewellyn Wilson, who was one of the first trained architects to work in Alberta. The current bell was installed in 1912.
One might wonder how a church in this area was built relatively early on. Wonder no more! Around the turn of the century, many of the settlers scattered around the area were English. This included 3 brothers who had come to homestead at Pine Lake. The young brothers were fond of having a good time. However, they still faithfully wrote home to update their family on life in Canada. Two of their Aunts wrote that they were sending a gift of money. Hurray! While planning how to best spend this windfall the boys neglected to finish the letter, which stated that the money was to form a fund to build a church in the community. The family back in England thought that they boys needed divine worship in their lives. Money was added by other interested settlers and the church took shape.
114 years later and this lovely old church got a much needed restoration, complete with historically accurate reproductions of details that couldn't be salvaged, such as broken or rotted crosses and roof details.
There is still a service held at 11:15 on the 2nd Sunday of every month. I could not get a look into the church but I bet it is as beautiful inside as it is outside.
I also found a Heritage tree in the cemetery, it is a white spruce known as the Walton Tree. I recently wrote about the Heritage Tree Project, so it was a bonus to find one of the trees here in this beautiful spot. You can see the tree in a couple of the photos, it is the tallest one there.
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| Love the red roof! |
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| Interesting roof. Walton tree on right. |
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| Walton tree on the left. |
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| Walton Heritage Tree |
References: Buried Treasure. The History of Elnora, Pine Lake and Huxley
That red sure does stand out, bad thing about red it fades very quickly
ReplyDeleteThat is true, luckily this place seems to have a lot of people who care about keeping it up.
DeleteDang, that's a beautiful church! Well captured.
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve! Looks good for 114!
DeleteThat is a beautiful church and I love the cemetery too, beautiful photos Jenn! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Rain! I hope I can see inside some day!
DeleteLovely! I note there appears to be a sloping staircase to the basement.
ReplyDeleteSuch a huge tree trunk...perhaps some at St Margaret's Eagle Butte might reach that circumstance....
Hi David, that didn't occur to me that there's a staircase there...makes sense though! I'm hoping to see inside and will confirm. Hopefully I see Eagle Butte one day, I've seen photos.
DeleteWhat a gorgeous church and cemetery and in a picturesque setting too! It's always good to see renovations on a lovely old place like this. And as if that wasn't enough, a Heritage Tree as well...Good eye! Great post, Jenn.
ReplyDeleteThanks Michael! It was a perfect day to go. The day before was very smoky and hazy. I bet that red stands out in the winter!
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