Holland Emmanuel Historical Church

Originally Emmanuel Anglican

Church, and commonly known as Holland Emmanuel Church, Holland Emmanuel Historical Church is a mid-sized,

one-storey wood frame building in the Gothic Revival style, located on a prominent site at the intersection

of Barr Street and Stewart Avenue in the Village of Holland. Its attractive corner tower and tall spire

make it a landmark in the village. The municipal designation applies to the building and the site on

which it stands.

Holland Emmanuel Historical Church is valued as an extremely well-preserved example

of a Gothic-revival style church designed by Andrew Maxwell in 1894, dating from Manitoba's Settlement

period. It is one of the best preserved of a number of striking Gothic Revival churches built in wood

in Manitoba in the late-1880s and 1890s. Like many churches of its era, its plan and massing - with an

articulated chancel raised several steps above the nave, and a south porch - as well as its Gothic Revival

style are based on the ideas propounded by the Ecclesiological Society in England, whose journal, The

Ecclesiologist, had a profound and long-lasting effect on the design of Anglican parish churches. Holland

Emmanuel Church is a lovely building with an exceptionally high degree of physical integrity, with nearly

every historic feature intact and in fine condition. Although it was deconsecrated in 2007, it remains

a much-valued local site.

Source: R.M. of Victoria By-Law No. 1309/2008, 10 June 2009.

Key elements that define Holland Emmanuel's site include:

- the prominent location

at the corner of Barr Street and Stewart Avenue, on a grassy site with several mature trees at the front

and side

Key elements that define the exterior heritage character of Holland Emmanuel Historical Church

include:

- the rectangular plan with an articulated chancel at the east end, a south porch comprising

a square entrance tower at the south-west corner, with doors in the south and west sides, and a small

vestry

- the single storey with steeply-pitched shingled gable roof, with wood soffits and fascia boards,

and decorative raised panels separated by ornamented paired wooden brackets on the fascia boards

- the

organization of the main facade and its openings: a trio of tall lancet windows at the east and west

fronts, with a blind oeil-de-boeuf in the west gable; pointed arched transoms over the main doors in

the tower; three double lancet windows on the north and south sides (set in pairs within rectangular

openings with elegant wood hood mouldings over the pair); the door on the north side and the single pointed

window on the west side of the vestry; all windows with simple wood muntins in Gothic Revival pattern;

the simple wood mouldings around the window openings; the simple wood storm windows with raised patterns

in the spandrels

-the double doors with four ornamented panels and original latch

- the three-stage tower

and its structural and ornamental features including: the lowest stage, with ornamental wooden buttresses;

the blind oeil-de-boeuf above each door; the frieze of ornament below the cornice, paired brackets at

the corners; the middle stage, with central round-arched ventilators, blind round-headed arches formed

of plain wood frames with raised wood "keystone" and corbels; and the steep octagonal spire

with bell-cast base and four tall, narrow dormers with steeply-pointed roofs and pointed cloverleaf-arched

top blind openings, etc.

- the simple ringed crosses at the gable peaks of the nave and of the chancel;

the weathervane on the spire

- the simple wood clapboard siding with cornerboards

- the fieldstone foundation

Key

elements that define the church's interior include:

- the plan consisting of the small south porch

and north vestry, with a single undivided worship space with a central aisle and narrower, raised chancel

-

the wide, pointed wood arches supporting the ceiling, and their decorative corbels

- the simple wood

mouldings surrounding the door and window openings and the chancel arch

- the leaded glass windows

-

the smooth, white-painted walls and dark-stained woodwork and tongue-and-groove ceiling and wainscoting;

the painted wood floor with decorative central vent

- the ecclesiastical furniture including the wood

pews, choir stalls, chairs, pulpit and reading desk; etc.