Wednesday, September 18, 2013

South Granville Presbyterian Church

     I drive up and down this road all the time and always  say to myself, "you should stop and  photograph the little South Granville Church sometime, soon!"   So, the other evening I stopped and took the following photos.
     Above/Below:  As you drive north on Smith Road (Route 230) - you can see the peak of South Granville church up ahead to the left of the intersection.
 The little church is located at the corner of Smith Road and Adams Road (Route 231).
     This old church is located at the cross roads of two country clay roads with not a building to be seen in all directions - so when the TV series, Emily of New Moon went looking for a site to do some filming, they came here - it can be seen in Seasons I and II.
     I can't determine any more information on the church right now.  It was likely built in the mid-1800's - a very simple structure.

     Just as I was ready to leave the sky became magnificent - I stayed and took photos around the church again as the sun went down behind the trees and the sky lit up with colours.
     Below: this photo was taken on the Adams Road looking east towards the church and intersection.  Arnold Smith tells me he went to a one-room school across the road from the church.  The South Granville School was located on the southwest corner of the intersection with a horse barn across the road on the southeast corner.  He said the original school was beside the horse barn and when they building the new school (c.1930s), with a 4-sided hip roof, they went across the road to build it.
     I found this reference by a family connected to the church http://brikwall.com/about-me.html

3 comments:

  1. Beautiful post. Some nice detailed shots. I love how there's virtually no eaves on the building....a very east coast feature ! The shot of the sun coming through the window was awesome.

    This bldg. is very simple, yet it seems to have some character. Not that hard to imagine the sunday-morning carriage ride coming down that muddy road in the 19th century...

    The church needs some attention....be nice if got it soon.

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  2. The pictures you took remind me that once my grandparents, my father and my sister and myself in the 50's attended the Church in the summer when we visited from Montreal where my father worked after the war years for the DVA. I have sent some money to the caretakers, but a lot more will be needed even for a scrapping and a paint job for the old family Church. I loved it, and love it still as all my MacLeod relatives are buried there, including my father Keir (died 1982)and mother Marion.(1993). I have all the background info on the old Church as one of the relatives wrote up a booklet about this beloved old Church. Maureen MacLeod Shields

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  3. Maureen, I am interested in the story of the people from Sutherland who settled in this area in the late 1840s. The history of the church sounds really interesting - how can one get a copy of the booklet?
    Malcolm Bangor-Jones

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