St. Ann's R.C. Church, Hope River - 1911-1950

     I was telling someone today about this magnificent church built in 1911 and demolished in the early 1050's - the following information are scans from the book, "St. Ann's Parish History, Hope River PEI: 150 Anniversary 1843-1993"
     A quote from this book about "the 6th church of this parish" - 
     "...the cement block church, is generally considered to have been a disaster.  It began to give trouble almost immediately and turned out to be worse than the fires that had already plagued the parish.  As time went on, it gave rise to controversy as to whether it could be strengthened and repaired by bricking up walls.  It was eventually decided to repair the structure - a decision to which some were strongly opposed...After many years of trying to maintain and repair the 1911 church, it was decided in the early 1950's to build a new church.  It was first used at Christmas of 1954...It must have been a great joy and comfort to be in the new church, but since the old one had to be torn down and a new one built in its place, there was considerable debt on the parish.  This is what gave rise to the idea of Father Denis Gallant to have lobster suppers to help pay off the debt".  
     These lobster suppers began in 1963 and carry on to this day - see their website http://www.lobstersuppers.com/
     The following are pages from the Parish history displaying that 6th parish church, built of cement block - click on the image to enlarge.