Description of Historic Place

The Trinity United Church of Canada is located on the south of Main Street. Its presence in the community is marked by its steeple with belfry, connoting Gothic Revival religious structure.

Heritage Value

The Trinity United Church of Canada is designated a Local Historic Place for its architectural quality and for its religious and cultural influence.

In the late 19th century, Methodist services at Hartland were held in members’ homes or in a local community hall. Gradually, the congregations grew to become part of a circuit in which several congregations shared one minister. By 1894, the congregation was large enough to have its own building. A local citizen sold a plot of land on lower Main Street to the Trustees of the Methodist Church. The rectangular wood-frame structure was completed in the Gothic Revival style under the ministry of Rev. H. S. Young. The floor plan conforms to an historical Roman church plan with the west-facing narthex just inside the double doors leading into the nave. At the opposite end facing the east are the chancel and altar. The nave with the centre aisle slopes downward from the narthex to the chancel, a rarity in such churches. The church's prominence in the community is marked by a tower, rising above the narthex, with a steeple and a belfry.

The Church influenced growth in the community significantly and by 1920 they became independent with no outside appointments. They participated in the rites of baptism, marriage and Christian burial in a small community village of farmers, businessmen and lumbermen. In 1922, a union formed between the Methodists and Presbyterian faith joining the two to become part of the United Church of Canada.

Sources: "Hidden History of Hartland" by Doris Kennedy, located at the Hartland Town Hall; Hartland Town Hall archives, Trinity United Church of Canada file.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Trinity United Church of Canada include:
- much of the Gothic Revival elements remaining in its original condition;
- white narrow clapboard walls reaching to the steeply-pitched gable roof;
- wooden tower sitting on the peak of the gable roof of the enclosed wooden vestibule entrance;
- tower topped with a square belfry opened on all four sides;
- decorative brackets under the cornice of the eaves of the gable ends;
- simple single pointed arched motif stained glass windows along both sides;
- two single lancet windows on the front façade;
- two single double-hung windows on the sides of the vestibule entrance;
- elevated double wooden door entrance with ogee arch transom window;
- central multilevel steps.

The character-defining elements that describe the interior of the church include:
- open nave;
- communion table located opposite the double doors at the end of the centre aisle facing the east wall;
- chancel, located three steps up from the nave, with an apse opens to the recessed choir area behind the alter;
- two solid wood doors on each side of the platform, the one on the right leading to the entrance to the church basement or undercroft and the one on the leading to the sacristy;
- round stained glass rose window above the chancel;
- multiple lines of stained wooden pews lining the aisle to the chancel;
- rare nave, sloping from the narthex down to the chancel creating a theatre effect.