Description of Historic Place

St. Paul's Bergheim Evangelical Lutheran Church is a Municipal Heritage Property situated on a 12-hectare parcel of land on Bergheim Road in the RM of Aberdeen, about 14 kilometres southeast of the Town of Aberdeen. The property features a wood-frame church with a 50-foot steeple, constructed in 1912.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of St. Paul's Bergheim Evangelical Lutheran Church resides in its long-standing use as a centre for worship, religious instruction, and social gatherings for the Lutheran community in the Aberdeen area. The church was built in 1912 by some of the area’s earliest settlers, who arrived from Germany in the first decade of the 1900s. Located on a slight rise amid gently rolling farmland, the church adopted the district’s colloquial name of Bergheim, which is German for “hill home.” The congregation, which continues to maintain the building and its grounds with care, has held regular weekly services, Sunday School classes, annual Fowl Suppers, and church picnics here since 1912. Reflecting the high value placed by the Lutherans on religious instruction, a Vacation Bible School has been held annually since 1956.

Heritage value also resides in the church's architecture, with characteristic Gothic-influenced features, including a steeply-pitched roof and pointed-arch windows with tinted-glass segments. The tall, square-shaped steeple features Gothic-arched belfry windows and an eight-sided spire in the witch's-cap style that is seen in many Saskatchewan churches. Visible from a considerable distance, the prominent spire has made this church a landmark in the district. The building’s bright white exterior makes it stand out sharply against the surrounding prairie landscape and skyscape, while three round windows and an arched door frame on the front are particularly distinctive features. Wholly in keeping with the simple dignity of the church’s exterior, noteworthy interior features include wooden wainscotting and a spacious wood-railed choir loft. The high, generously-arched wooden ceiling boards render the religious symbolism of the upward-reaching Gothic arch into the clean, graceful lines of a typical prairie pioneer building material.

Source:

Rural Municipality of Aberdeen No. 373 Bylaw No. 2001-05.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of St. Paul's Bergheim Evangelical Lutheran Church resides in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements that reflect the religious nature of the building, including the high, generously arched ceiling, tinted-glass window segments, wooden wainscotting, and wood-railed choir loft;
-those elements characteristic of Gothic-influenced architecture, including the pointed-arch side windows, steeply pitched roof, and the 50-foot steeple with pointed-arch belfry windows and metal-clad witch's-cap spire;
-those elements that contribute to the church’s commanding appearance, including the 26-by-40-foot massing of the overall structure, as well as the three round windows and arched door frame on the front;
-the church’s situation on an elevated point of land.