Description of Historic Place

The Stone Church Cemetery is a Municipal Heritage Property located approximately 8.5 kilometres southwest of the Hamlet of Wishart in the Rural Municipality of Emerald No. 277. Situated on 1.5 hectares of grounds, the property features a one-storey, fieldstone church constructed in 1888 and a cemetery established in 1884.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Stone Church Cemetery lies in its status as the oldest remaining church in the Rural Municipality of Emerald No. 277. As settlers moved into the area in the 1880s, religious services and teachings were initially held in local homes. However, as more settlers arrived, they decided that the community needed to build a church. Members from the Anglican, Methodist, and Presbyterian congregations got together and constructed the Stone Church in 1888 on the site near the cemetery that had been established four years earlier. The church's relatively small size and form make the building typical of rural stone churches constructed during this time in the North-West Territories.

Source:

Rural Municipality of Emerald No. 277 Bylaw 4/2004.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Stone Church Cemetery resides in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements that relate to the property's age and its ties to early settlers in the community, such as the fieldstone archway, the date stone on the front exterior of the church, the commemorative fieldstone cairn, and cemetery;
-those features relating to the building's representative church architecture, including the arch windows, exterior fieldstone, and the size and form of the church;
-those elements that speak to the property's use as a place of worship, including the crosses and religious ornamentation on many of the tombstones and the signage on the two archways on the grounds;
-the property's location on its original site.