Description of Historic Place

St. Matthew’s Anglican Church – Winnetka is a Municipal Heritage Property occupying 0.8 hectares, 12 kilometres northwest of the town of Edenwold on the Etaples Road. The property features a small, one-storey wood-frame church built in 1927 and a cemetery.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church – Winnetka resides in its association with the Anglican faith in the local community, a history that is older than the building itself. A church building was not constructed until 1927, but Anglican services were held in homes in the Winnetka area as early as the 1880s. A parish was organized by the 1900s and the pump organ that resides in the church today was purchased in 1903. Built on donated land, with volunteer labour, the church is a landmark in the community. Nestled against a bluff of aspen trees on a well-traveled road, St. Matthew’s Anglican Church and cemetery are pleasantly and practically sited.

The heritage value of this simple rectangular building also lies in its status as an example of prairie Anglican country church architecture of the 1920s. The east-west orientation of this church adheres to the European-Christian tradition of facing the main entrance towards the setting sun and the altar toward the east, a custom that tended to be followed by rural Anglicans on the prairies. The interior is striking in its simplicity. Varnished fir boards line the floor and ceiling and are used for wainscoting. Painted “beaver board” spans the wall area between the wainscoting and the ceiling. Three broad steps symbolizing the Holy Trinity, lead up to the altar.

Source:

Rural Municipality of Edenwold No. 158 Bylaw No. 1995-4.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church – Winnetka resides in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements that reflect the building’s use as a place of worship, including the stepped altar, decorative window surrounds, the interior woodwork, and the 1903 pump organ;
-the siting of the church on an east-west orientation, and spatial relationship of the building relative to the trees and the adjacent road;
-those elements reflecting the site's use as a cemetery, including the carved headstones.