First Chapel Site

First Chapel Site is designated a Local Historic Place in recognition of the connection of this site to the community’s early settlement and religious life.

In 1802, the Acadian residents of the Petitcodiac River villages built a small chapel in order to have their own parish and their own priest. The small building measured about 15 feet by 20 feet. Msgr. Plessis, the bishop of Quebec City, dedicated the mission to Saint-Anselme during a visit to Acadia in 1812. The chapel was moved close to the current Saint-Anselme presbytery. In 1840, the parishioners built a true church of wood, later replaced by the current stone church completed in 1904. The chapel was used as a sacristy for the wooden church. In 1848, 46 years after the original chapel was built, Father Hector-Antoine Drolet became the first resident parish priest. In 2002, on the 200th anniversary of the erection of the first chapel, a metal monument recalling the shape of the original chapel and a commemorative plaque were erected on the site by the City of Dieppe. The context of the monument within the relatively unchanged landscape evokes vistas of the Petitcodiac River similar to what would have been visible from the original chapel. There is a possibility that archaeological remains exist that would enrich the heritage value of the First Chapel Site.