Saturday, November 5, 2016

St. Mark's Anglican Church, built in 1841 - gone!!

     On this sunny Saturday morning I decided to go over to St. Mark's Anglican Church in Rustico to take a few last photos and maybe some measurements of the exterior before they tear it down.  I was surprised to see it gone already!  All that was left was a filled-in hole and a few wide hemlock boards and a hand-hewn beam.  To think of the hard work that went into building it 175 years ago - there was no going to Kent or Home Depot for supplies - it all came with hard work and the skill of carpenters.
I meandered through the cemetery and took a few photos of some old stones.
    Here's a few photos I've taken over the years of St. Mark's.

5 comments:

  1. I'm shocked - it's just gone. One less church on Church Road...

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  2. I woukd have loved to repurpose any of it.

    We are restoring/renovating a 130yr old gothic victorian church, and I am always stalking kijijj for gothic style windows.
    We are trying to use as much original material as possible. And keep the original church as close to its original design and materials as possible.

    So when we have to custom order construction materials, and then see churches like this destroyed, it's just heartbreaking.

    I would sign whatever waiver anyone wanted to be able to help properly take these places down instead of destroying them.Especially if I could get a window or two to repupose in payment for time (or some flooring, or beams,or mouldings,or trim....)

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  3. A little late to the party but here goes! I participated in the dismantling of this church. Myself and three others spent two weeks carefully removing the interior furnishings. Every salvageable beam, brace and board was saved and repurposed. I've dismantled and repurposed several structures and this was absolutely the most excellently crafted timber frame building I've ever had the pleasure of working with. All beams were expertly hand hewn from eastern hemlock. The corner columns were 7x10 with up to twenty mortise pockets, all marked with roman numerals. The pews went mainly to parishioners and the stained glass I carefully removed and delivered to St Johns Anglican in Milton Station. Always sad to see a beautiful building taken down but this one was done as respectfully as possible with many materials being saved for re-use. Hopefully this brings some small comfort to the many folks saving/appreciating our island heritage buildings.

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