Description of Historic Place

New Stockholm Lutheran Church is a Municipal Heritage Property located within the Rural Municipality of Fertile Belt No. 183, approximately six kilometers southwest of the Village of New Stockholm. The property features a brick-clad Gothic Revival church constructed in 1919 and a cemetery established in 1892.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the New Stockholm Lutheran Church lies in the property’s association with the religious history of the community. By the late 1880s, Swedish immigrants settled in the New Stockholm area and, in 1889, established a congregation of the Augustana Synod of the Lutheran Church. In 1891, the congregation chose the current location to establish a cemetery and construct their first church. As the congregation grew, more space was required and, in 1919, they constructed a larger church immediately adjacent to the first. The property has become a landmark in the community as many of the district’s early pioneers are buried in the cemetery and because the property has hosted church services for well over 100 years.

The heritage value of the property also lies in its architecture. Typical of Lutheran churches of the period, the property features a large, central bell tower with an eight-sided broach spire and louvered belfry accented with pinnacles. However, unlike most rural Lutheran churches, the New Stockholm Lutheran Church displays more elaborate elements, such as its cruciform layout, large transept windows, buttresses, and small rose windows on the bell tower. The interior is dominated by stained glass windows throughout the main floor. The two large windows in the crossing transept are the most elaborate and display elements of Gothic Revival style. These architectural elements combine to distinguish the property from the surrounding landscape, making it a landmark in the community.

Source:

Rural Municipality of Fertile Belt No. 183 Bylaw No. 124-88.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the New Stockholm Lutheran Church resides in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements that reflect the property’s association with the religious history of the area, including its location on its original site, the tombstones and their placement into rows within the cemetery;
-those elements that reflect the property’s architecture, including the bell tower with eight-sided broach spire and louvered belfry accented with pinnacles, cruciform layout, large transept windows, the buttresses, rose windows on the bell tower, stained glass windows and tracery, and the building’s tall vertical proportions.