I've been waiting to hear the fate of the former New Dominion United Church since it went up for sale a year ago. Last week the Journal Pioneer featured a front page story telling of its new purpose. The church was moved a short distance away and will be used as a family home.
Below is the article along with submitted photo - further down are two photos I took a few days ago.
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Divine intervention turns PEI church into home
for family of 12
Maureen
Coulter / Published Journal-Pioneer on August 25, 2016
The
Able family will have a new place to call home by the end of this year as they
are renovating the New Dominion United Church into a livable space. The 161-year-old
church will be staying in the community as the family purchased three acres of
land across the field from the old location.
Through a chance
encounter at Gass's store, New Dominion United Church will soon be new home for
Able family
As soon as Effie Able
walked into the New Dominion United Church, she knew she was going to live
there.
“I walked into the
foyer and I said, ‘this is it, this is home’.”
Her intuition has
proven to be bang-on, thanks to running into the right person at the right
time.
New Dominion United
Church, built in 1855, was put on the real estate market after three
congregations in the area merged to form West River United Church in Cornwall.
Effie and her husband,
Justin Able, decided to move back to P.E.I. in 2013 after living in Florida for
a year where Justin was a pastor. Their kids were unhappy and missed their
extended family and second family at Grace Christian School.
“They wanted to move
back,” said Effie, as she gazes up at what will be her new home. “They like the
wholesomeness of P.E.I.”
Effie and Justin were
looking for a cost-effective home to accommodate their 10 children, who range
in age from 13 to six weeks old. They also wanted something unique with a good
story behind it.
Their realtor, Jeff
Newson, suggested taking a look at the New Dominion United Church, and Effie
jumped at the idea.
However, the family
came close to missing the opportunity to purchase the building. Effie calls it
“fate” that they went back a second time to look at the church with their
children. That same day, they also stopped by Gass's Country Store where they
learned from a church committee member that there was going to be a meeting
that very evening about tearing down the 161-year-old church.
“We went back to the
church and called Jeff Newson right then and said, ‘Jeff, they are going to
tear it down. You need to make a phone call. We are going to buy it’.”
The family was leaving
that week to do missionary work in Italy and had they not gone out that day and
had they not met that committee member, they would have missed out on their
dream home.
They moved the church
to three acres of land across the field from its old location, keeping it in
the community. Approximately 60 people showed up on Aug. 10 to watch Moveall
Structures move the church.
The family is doing
minor renovations to make it livable, but for the most part, they plan on
leaving things untouched.
The 65-foot ceiling
sanctuary will become their living room. The upstairs balcony overlooking the
sanctuary will be the kitchen (the church had already converted it into a
kitchen several years ago).
In the middle of the
tower will be a school room with a spiral staircase leading to the top of the
tower where Effie and Justin’s bedroom will be.
The basement will be turned into a boys and girls dorm with a
recreational room in between.
“Our kids like to be
together. They’ve always shared bedrooms. We actually tried to separate them
but they all want to sleep in the same room anyway.”
Effie said they look
forward to having lots of space and plan to have a little farm consisting of
vegetables, chickens and a goat.
“I don’t know anything
about farming so I’m hoping some Islander will have pity on me,” she laughs.
The Able family
anticipates the renovations will be completed by the end of 2016.
“I hope to have it done so people in the community can come see it at
Christmas,” said Effie.
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