Description of Historic Place

Trinity United Church is a Municipal Heritage Property occupying one lot at the corner of McDonald Street and Welwyn Avenue in the Village of Welwyn. The property features a one-storey, wood-frame church built in 1905.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of Trinity United Church resides in its long association with religious and community life in Welwyn. After two decades of worshipping in small, rustic buildings, Welwyn’s Presbyterian congregation built “Trinity Church” in 1905. One of the village’s first buildings, the church has served continuously to this day as a place of worship, a meeting place for church-affiliated organizations, and venue for community gatherings.

Further heritage value lies in the property’s association with the Church Union movement that culminated in the creation of the United Church of Canada. Prior to this formal union of Canada’s Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist Churches in 1925, a number of individual congregations in western Canada had already combined. Some became autonomous “Union Churches,” while others joined to form “double-affiliated” entities that kept separate membership rolls and contributed financially to both parent churches. Following several years of occasionally sharing church facilities and attending each other’s services, Welwyn’s Presbyterians and Methodists voted in 1917 to form a cooperative union as “Welwyn Union Church.” Thereafter, the combined congregation held their services in the Presbyterian church. Although church services and administration were merged, the membership retained ties to the parent churches and continued to provide financial support to both. In 1925, Welwyn Union Church became Welwyn United Church. In 1947, the church’s name was changed to “Trinity United Church.”

There is also heritage value in the church’s historic integrity. With its largely unaltered exterior form, accentuated by the corner bell tower, the building is a familiar and valued landmark in the community. The building’s interior space is defined by the original arrangement of vaulted ceiling, nave and raised sanctuary with flanking vestry and organ alcove. The central positioning of the pulpit relates to the Presbyterian faith’s emphasis on sermons and scripture reading. Further historic integrity is seen in the building’s remaining period construction materials, such as the fieldstone foundation, wood siding, pebbled glass windows, wood flooring, and carved walls of the vestry and organ alcove.

Source:

Village of Welwyn Bylaw No. 177 C/82.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of Trinity United Church resides in the following character-defining elements:
-exterior elements that express the building’s ecclesiastical function, including its rectangular form with steep-pitched gable roof, corner bell tower, steeple and ironwork finial; the pointed-arch window openings in the front and side walls; and the tilted square window above the sanctuary;
-interior elements related to the building’s religious function, including the floor plan of nave and elevated sanctuary; the peaked, vaulted ceiling; and the wood-walled vestry and organ alcove with decorative detailing;
-elements that reflect the church’s landmark status and long-standing association with the community, including its location on its original corner lot; the pulpit with memorial plaque; and the basement hall space;
-elements that embody the church’s historic integrity, including its exterior form; the arrangement of interior space; the central positioning of the pulpit; and period construction materials, such as the high fieldstone foundation, clapboard siding, wood flooring, and pebbled glass windows.