Municipal Heritage Site

Sts. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church

Park (South), Manitoba

Contextual view, from the southeast, showing the church building and bell tower of Sts. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church, Elphinstone area, 2006

Contextual view, from the southeast, showing the church building and bell tower of Sts. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church, Elphinstone area, 2006

Photo: Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 2005

Built
1917
Recognized
1991
By
Local government

The register’s text, word for word

Description

Sts. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church, completed in 1917, is a modest wood-frame building on a rural site in the Elphinstone area. The provincial designation applies to the church and bell tower, its cemetery and the grounds they occupy.

Heritage value

The unpretentious white wood-frame presence of Sts. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church, set on a slight rise overlooking cultivated farmland interspersed with small lakes and woodlands, offers a welcome surprise to the traveller on a quiet country road south of Riding Mountain National Park. The nearby bell tower, and the cemetery on a plot sloping away to the rear, complete the picture. This fine well-preserved example of a modest Gothic Revival-style rural church, in which services continue on a limited basis, offers an enduring link to the origins of the isolated community of Wisla and the faith and perseverance of its pioneers.

SourceLocal Government District of Park By-law No. 883, January 14, 1991

Character‑defining elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the church site include:

  • its location in the Wisla district, one kilometre north of Road 470, with the church facing east on an open plot and a cemetery to the rear
  • the two-storey wooden bell tower, with a square open cupola and large bell, nestled against a thick grove of trees to the north

Key exterior elements that define the church's modest Gothic Revival design include:

  • the one-storey rectangular massing set beneath a moderately pitched gable roof, with a small gable-roofed front porch, polygonal apse and shed-roofed north porch
  • the quaintly detailed octagonal bellcote with blind windows and a steep roof
  • the symmetrically organized fenestration, including twin oculi at the front and pointed windows
  • the unpretentious materials, finishes and details, including the wood-frame construction, white-painted wood siding with matching corner and eave trim and contrasting window and door surrounds, crosses on rooftops, etc.

Key elements that define the church's fine interior include:

  • the modestly scaled plan, well-appointed nave and a compact choir loft at the east end
  • the walls and ceiling of horizontal wood panelling above vertical wood wainscotting, painted in muted colours and enhanced with decorative stencilled borders
  • the uncluttered chancel with oak pulpit and an ornate altar; all behind a painted wood balustrade
  • the narrow choir loft supported by columns finished in faux marble and accessed by steep wooden stairs
  • fine religious iconography such as images and statuettes of Saints Peter and Paul, etc.

End of the register’s text

Location

SE 7-19-21 WPM, Park (South), Manitoba, R0J, Canada

50.61779° N, 100.37012° W

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Being on the register doesn’t make a place open to visitors. Many are private homes or businesses; please view them from the street.

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