Located on Victoria Avenue at Gilles, the rendering above appeared in the Border Cities Star in June of 1928, and ground was broken on the building in July of the same year.
The building was designed by Windsor Architects Cameron & Ralston, and contained a 400 seat church, a Sunday School and a parsonage.
The building was expected to cost $45,000 in 1928 (about $573,500 in today’s dollars).
All things considered, she’s held up rather well over the last 81 years.
Funny how todays dollars are reflected…for 2 million it would be a small stucco turd…amazing how they could build something so pleasing with that kind of cash
One reason is that labour was still inexpensive at that time. Now both labour and materials cost too much to make much of anything ornate.
I have always liked that church. It fits very well into the neighbourhood.
It doesn’t look like the same church, unless part of it burned down and there were extensive renovations to the exterior. If it was overbudget and redesigned, why would they post the sketch in the Star?
Looking at the picture, it looks like the back half of the church has be renovated over the years. There is always a chance that the back half (containing classrooms, offices meeting rooms etc.) may have been demolished and rebuilt. The chapel side off the church looks like it as been altered very little over 81 years, but the back half looks newer. I would guess by looking at the style of windows and the roof line of the back half that the church was renovated in the past 30 years.
Note the windows seem smaller in size and there is no stone trim around windows. Also part of the back half seems to have a flat roof.
The sketch was a rendering that was released before ground was broken on the church. Obviously the design was scaled back a bit as is often the case between the initial design and the final product.
The parsonage was separated and moved somewhere in the late 60’s. I’ll guess 1968. At that time the addition was put up that included classrooms and a kitchen.I forget where the house was moved. That’ll make someone a good detective project.