Description of Historic Place

Westfield United Church is small wood-frame church and lot located just off the Nerepis Road. The open belfry, adorned with four square columns and a wooden cross, is a prominent feature of the building.

Heritage Value

Built to house the Methodist congregation of the area, the present-day Westfield United Church was erected in 1922 to replace the ca. 1860 structure that was destroyed by the Westfield fire of 1921. The building sits on the site of the original church, on land that was donated by a local citizen by the name of Lowrey. The site is designated for its spiritual and historical value as a symbol of the worship that has been faithfully conducted here since the 1860s. The Methodist Church became the United Church on June 10, 1925, when the United Church of Canada was created. In 1998 the congregations of Bayswater-Summerville, Long Reach, and Westfield combined to form Two Rivers Pastoral Charge, with services alternating between Long Reach and Summerville.

The rectangular wood-frame building is in the Gothic Revival style, connoted in the many remaining original architectural elements, including the tower with square open belfry with bell; use of lancet and equilateral arched stained glass windows.

Source: Grand Bay-Westfield Historic Place files: Westfield United Church

Character-Defining Elements

Character defining elements that define the Westfield United Church’s external heritage character include:
- location just off the Nerepis Road on a well-kept lot;
- Gothic Revival elements, including single and double lancet windows of the side elevations and the stained glass equilateral arched windows of the façade and sides;
- enclosed vestibule with tower;
- open belfry (with bell) of the tower and all decorative elements, including four square pyramid-capped columns, short steeple, wooden cross atop the steeple, wide brackets under eaves of steeple;
- rectangular massing with two gabled bays;
- steep pitch of roof and roofs of bays.

Key elements of the church’s spiritual value include:
- continual use as a place of worship since ca 1860 (site) and 1922 (current building).