Kildonan Presbyterian Church

Kildonan Presbyterian Church

sits in a large, well-treed property on the northern outskirts of Winnipeg. The church, of solid limestone

and now covered with stucco, was completed in 1854. It is surrounded by a historically important cemetery

containing the graves of some of the Selkirk settlers, Manitoba's earliest European farmers, and

many of their descendents. The provincial designation applies to the building and large cemetery that

surrounds it.

Kildonan

Presbyterian Church, built in 1852-54, is the second-oldest standing church in Winnipeg, and the Mother

Church of Western Canadian Presbyterianism. The church served some of the province's earliest European

settlers, including many of the Selkirk settlers who arrived in the early 1800s and who inaugurated the

first halting steps toward the development of the province's agricultural economy. Built almost

40 years after their arrival, Kildonan Presbyterian Church was a significant and proud achievement for

these pioneers. The structure, the work of well-known Red River Settlement-era stonemason Duncan McRae,

is an early example of the Gothic Revival style, a familiar form of Protestant church architecture well

known by the settlers, whose small parish churches in Scotland were the models here. In this instance,

given the pioneer circumstances and the tenets of Presbyterianism, which called for restraint and even

austerity in their buildings, the result is a modest interpretation of the style. Inside, the church

retains most of its original features and details, all in good condition.

Source: Manitoba Heritage

Council Minute, October 17, 1987

Key

elements that define the important site characteristics of Kildonan Presbyterian Church include:

- its

placement on a large treed lot, facing south, surrounded on all sides by gravestones of the cemetery

Key

elements that define the church's modest Gothic Revival style include:

- the simplicity of the design

with its rectangular form, gable roof and large pointed windows on the east and west sides and in the

balcony level of the south-facing gable end

- the contrasting textures of the rough-hewn stone walls,

stuccoed in 1921, and the smooth-cut stone quoins and accenting around the windows

Key qualities that

define the church's modest, but eloquent interior include:

- the spacious uninterrupted nave, with

truncated gable ceiling and a small balcony at the south end with narrow access stairs

- the arrangement

of the space, with aisles leading to the chancel

- the palette of textures and colours, including light-hued

plaster walls, planked ceiling painted white, simple square columns supporting the balcony, painted white,

and contrasting woodwork stained dark brown, including floors, pews, pulpit, choir benches, tables, vestibule

screen with upper edge carved with simple fleur-de-lis outlines, etc.

- the pointed arch entrance door,

four stained-glass windows, clear-glass windows with multi-paned sashes (all openings deeply recessed)

and memorial tablets hung on the walls