Description of Historic Place

St. John’s United Church, located on J. D. Gauthier Boulevard in Shippagan, is a Gothic Revival religious building dating from 1903, except for the entrance, which was added in 1950. The description comprises the building, its lot, and the cemetery adjacent to the church. The site is located on the main artery crossing the town from west to east.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the St. John’s United Church site resides in its historical, symbolic, and architectural significance, as well as its religious nature.

St. John’s United Church was built in 1903, and an entrance was added in 1950. It was built in Gothic Revival style to suit the principles of Anglican Bishop John Medley (1804-1892), who was particularly fond of that architectural style. The church has undergone very few changes since 1950 and is a very fine example of the Anglican churches built in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century.

St. John’s United Church also has heritage value because of the ethnological significance of the cemetery adjacent to the site. The epitaphs on certain tombstones contain names that have marked the history of the Town of Shippagan and the surrounding communities. In the cemetery near the church, there are some gravestones originating from Jersey and Scotland, which shows that different ethnic groups were present in the Town of Shippagan. One gravestone is especially notable, that of Mr. Joshua Alexandre (1802-1859). Mr. Alexandre was the first French-speaking MLA to sit in the provincial Legislature, and he was also a justice of the peace. There is a small community located on Île Lamèque that bears his name, Pointe Alexandre.

St. John’s United Church also has heritage value because of its land appropriation. The site marks the part of town where the Anglican population had settled at the time. In fact, according to the archives, most of the lots located in this part of the town belonged to Anglican families.

Source: Shippagan Town Hall, site file, "260, boul. J.-D.-Gauthier"

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements relating to the architecture of St. John’s United Church include:
- its Gothic Revival style and its rectangular shape characteristic of Anglican churches dating from the late 19th and early 20th century;
- the steeply pitched gable roof;
- the interior north and south walls (back and entrance), which are shaped like the overturned hull of a boat;
- the Gothic hood mouldings with label stops over the exterior windows;
- the double-hung 4/4 windows, the oculus with quatrefoil tracery, the window frames, and the hood mouldings dating from 1903.

The character-defining elements relating to the church’s historical and ethnological significance include:
- the tombstones made of various materials;
- the gravestones originating from Jersey and Scotland;
- the gravestone of Mr. Joshua Alexandre.

The character-defining element relating to the church’s relationship to its environment is:
- the role of land appropriation by Anglophones represented by the site of the church.