Description of Historic Place

The Mill Bay Historic Church is a wooden one-storey building with an elevated gabled entrance, situated on a large lot overlooking the Trans-Canada Highway. The church is located in the town of Mill Bay, British Columbia. This historic place includes the church, the surrounding cemetery and grounds.

Heritage Value

The Mill Bay Historic Church has historic, spiritual and aesthetic value for its association with early pioneers, for its use as a parish for over one hundred years, and for its Gothic Revival design.

The Mill Bay Historic Church has historic value for being built in 1897 on land donated by pioneers in order to fulfill the community's dream of having an official church and for its association with people of historical importance to the Cowichan Valley. Noteworthy community members involved in the development of the first community church include the Copley, Garnett, and Chapman families, and Hans Peter Peterson; many of these community members were interred at the Mill Bay Historic Cemetery. They helped lay the foundation for a thriving community, evident by their many descendants still living within the Cowichan Valley.

Opened in 1898, the Mill Bay Historic Church functioned as a Methodist Church until 1925 and as a United Church for many years thereafter; it was the central community meeting place of the Mill Bay and Shawnigan Lake settlers, and thus greatly contributed to the development and settlement patterns of this area. A functioning parish for over one hundred years, the Mill Bay Historic Church continued to offer a central meeting place for the residences of the community. The restored church represents cultural and spiritual traditions to the communities of Mill Bay and Shawnigan Lake.

Architecturally, this church has aesthetic value for its simple Gothic Revival influence. This architectural style is observed in the arched windows and steeply pitched gable roof. Gothic Revival was the most popular architectural style during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Canada. The architecture of this church, while modest, illustrates a great achievement in design and development for the original settler community, as the early pioneers built the Mill Bay Historic Church by hand.

The building's prominent location, at a major intersection just off the Trans-Canada highway, makes it a significant historical landmark. The site is surrounded by mature trees, creating a natural sound barrier and serene atmosphere adding to its aesthetic and spiritual value.

SOURCE: Cowichan Valley Regional District, Planning Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Mill Bay Historic Church include its:
- relationship between the Church and the first European settlers of the area
- symbolization of early settlement patterns
- original elements of the Gothic Revival style building including the arched windows and steeply pitched roof that illustrate an achievement in design for the early settlers
- visible location off a major highway
- early pioneers buried in the Historic Cemetery
- mature trees
- use as a community meeting place for over a hundred years
- position on its original location
- simple massing and rectangular form
- gabled entrance
- Horizontal siding