Description of Historic Place

Located in a residential area just off the busy commercial section of Twelfth Street, the Sixth Avenue United Church is a British Arts and Crafts-inspired, Edwardian-era structure of precast concrete block and wood-frame construction. The church is distinguished by a cross-gabled roof, large stained glass windows and a corner bell tower.

Heritage Value

The Sixth Avenue United Church is significant as a community institution and represents the evolution and growth of a Methodist congregation that was first established in New Westminster in 1859. As the original congregation expanded, a new Methodist congregation was established in the city's West End, which built a church near the corner of Twelfth Street and Sixth Avenue in 1891. The congregation continued to grow, and this new, larger church was designed in 1910-11. The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1911, and the church was opened January 28, 1912. The construction of this much larger church demonstrated the continuing growth of the city and the increasing development of institutional facilities. With Church Union in 1925, this became a United Church congregation, which it remains today.

Additionally, the Sixth Avenue United Church is of heritage value for its British Arts and Crafts-influenced architecture. The structure is notable for the unusually early and extensive use of precast concrete blocks of contrasting smooth and rough-dressed textures. Other exterior features include the shingled wall treatment and the open, front porch with square columns, while the substantially intact interior features include a cross-vaulted roof with massive roof trusses, a square floor plan with a curved balcony supported on cast iron columns, large stained-glass windows and tongue-and-groove cedar wainscoting. Complementing the Arts and Crafts finish is the Gothic pointed-arched fenestration, which further emphasizes the historic British references of the design.

Furthermore, the Sixth Avenue United Church is a significant surviving design by prominent BC architect Thomas Hooper (1857-1935), who had one of the province's longest-running and most prolific careers. Over a number of decades, the English-born Hooper demonstrated stylistic versatility that reflected changing tastes and technologies. As demonstrated in the seminal Metropolitan Methodist Church in Victoria, 1889-1891, Hooper was one of the original proponents of the Richardsonian Romanesque style; in order for him to produce the best possible design he was sent back east by the Methodist elders to study the latest trends in church architecture. This led to many other commissions for Methodist churches throughout the province, and throughout his career Hooper designed many churches for different denominations.

Source: City of New Westminster Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Sixth Avenue United Church include its:
- mid-block location on Sixth Avenue
- continuous use as a place of public worship
- close siting to the front property line
- ecclesiastical form, scale and massing, as expressed by its basement partially above ground, irregular square plan with apse, corner bell tower and original side and rear porches
- cross-gabled roof with cornice returns, hipped roof on apse and rear porch, a flat roof on the side porch: roof clad with cedar shingles
- use of materials, including precast concrete blocks of contrasting smooth and rough-dressed textures, wood-frame construction, and a wooden truss roof
- British Arts and Crafts style elements, such as shingled walls and gables, open, front-gabled porch with square tapered wooden columns, battlemented parapets at the side entrance, and Gothic pointed-arch windows
- additional exterior features, such as recessed entrance with split, double front entry, square bell tower, capped with a tall hipped roof and a metal finial, triple-assembly louvred vents in the gables and Gothic-arched vents in the bell tower, and original wooden entrance doors
- asymmetrical fenestration, including Gothic pointed-arch stained and leaded-glass window assemblies with wooden tracery, leaded lancet windows, double-hung wooden-sash stained-glass windows within the front porch, and double-hung wooden-sash basement windows
- original interior layout, with split vestibules leading to a large open sanctuary with mezzanine
- interior features, such as cross-vaulted roof with exposed heavy timber wooden-truss roof structure, raked sanctuary floor, central altar, a curved mezzanine supported on cast iron posts, varnished woodwork including Douglas fir ceiling panelling and tongue-and-groove cedar wall panelling, cedar-panelled doors, and cast iron radiators