St. Paul-the-Apostle Anglican Church, 94 Church St, 1898

St. Paul-the-Apostle Anglican Church is a colourful accent to Church Street. Despite its smallness, the history of the Anglican congregation dates back to the town's early beginnings. The first local Anglican church was located at Town Point, Antigonish Harbour. In 1834, Thomas Hill donated a lot of land on Church Street to serve as a second parish cemetery; it contains some of the town's oldest graves. By 1842 there was also an Anglican church on this site. This structure was lost in a fire in 1898. Parishioner Gustavus Bernasconi, a trained civil engineer, prepared the blueprints, opting for a style that partially echoed his own heritage--Swiss Gothic. The new church, located on the same site, was constructed by Antigonish carpenter, Allen Gillis, and John McDonald, a local contractor and builder, and proprietor of a woodworking factory at the West-End.

St. Paul's features many elements indicative of Gothic Revival such as the steeply pitched gable roof, the saddle-back tower, the pointed arched gable porch and lancet windows in the chancel and nave. The church is also emblematic of late Gothic style which featured asymmetrical configurations, especially steeples and main entrances in off-centre positions. Nova Scotian Anglicans, more than other denominational groups, showed a decided preference for irregular shapes with Gothic embellishment after 1850. St. Paul's also represents the playful ecleticism and enriched wall surface of late 19th-century architecture. The decorative shingle cladding and the stickwork half-timbered-like detailing at the gable ends reveal the late Victorian predilection for ornamentation. Even the church's polychromatic colour scheme authentically captures the spirit of the age.

Researched by Carol Sullivan