St. Peter, Dynevor

St. Peter, Dynevor, built in 1852-54, is a

long, low stone structure overlooking the Red River north of East Selkirk. The provincial designation

applies to the church and its lot.

St. Peter, Dynevor is the most

significant site that remains from the First Nations agricultural community at St. Peter's, the

first Anglican mission of its type in Western Canada and a bellwether of early Aboriginal-European relations

in southern Manitoba. The sturdy Gothic Revival-style structure, one of the West's oldest stone

churches, was designed by an indefatigable missionary, Rev. William Cockran, based on English parish

churches, and laboriously built by parishioners using local and imported materiel. A later addition gave

the structure a formal chancel, a unique feature among the four pre-1870 Anglican churches that stand

along the Red River. Cockran began the St. Peter's mission in the early 1830s, on land reserved

for First Nations since the late 1810s, to further his evangelizing and help the Saulteaux and Cree of

the area adapt to a farm economy. The initiative had the support of Peguis, a respected Saulteaux chief

whose people had done much to ensure the survival of the first Scottish colonists in the Red River Settlement,

but whose own way of life was affected by the colony's expansion. The mission had mixed success,

yet persisted until the early 1900s when the reserve was surrendered and its First Nations occupants

relocated. The largely intact church, still used on a seasonal basis, and surrounding cemetery containing

more than 3,000 gravesites, including that of Chief Peguis, are now rare links to the only First Nations

parish in the Red River Settlement.

Source: Minister Charged with the Administration of The Historic

Sites Preservation Act, August 14, 1963

Key

elements that define the heritage character of the St. Peter, Dynevor site include:

- the landmark location

on the east bank of the Red River near East Selkirk, with the church's spire rising above its surroundings,

and the visual and historic links west across the Red River to the church rectory, also a designated

provincial site

- the well-groomed churchyard with mature trees and a large cemetery holding marked and

unmarked gravesites

Key elements that define the church's Gothic Revival architecture include:

-

the long, low rectangular massing featuring robust facades of roughly dressed limestone under a gable

roof of cedar shakes and long wooden rafters, with gable ends of wood siding, a stone vestry and chancel

appended to the east end and a simple wooden front entry porch

- the 1904 square belfry with horizontal

wood siding and a steep octagonal spire topped by a Celtic cross

- the pointed arched openings throughout

featuring intricate wooden tracery and mullions, some intact panes of plate glass and smooth-cut limestone

surrounds

- the details, including smooth-cut limestone door mouldings and quoins, two brick chimneys,

etc.

Key elements that define the church's interior layout, finishes and details include:

- the

formal plan composed of a nave with two side aisles flanked by sections of hand-hewn pews, a raised chancel

and adjoining vestry

- the chancel recessed in a large segmental arch adorned with three banners reading

"Kanatiseyun" and holding a hand-carved wooden pulpit, altar and rails, a wooden preacher¿s

desk, kneelers with horsehair covering, a stone font, etc.

- the nearly one-metre-thick walls holding

deeply inset windows, the shallow gambrel-shaped ceiling playfully organized and some intact plank floors

-

the three-sided expression of the tower, framing the nave entrance with large pointed arched openings,

carried out with vertical plank construction and containing an upper door accessed by simple wooden staircases

-

the details and finishes, including a historically accurate colour palette, panelled double nave doors

with period hardware, a stained-glass window in the chancel, crown mouldings, plain baseboards, etc.