Description of Historic Place

Holy Cross Greek Catholic Church is a modest wood-frame building constructed in 1915 in the Inwood area. The municipal designation applies to the church and its lot.

Heritage Value

Holy Cross Greek Catholic Church is a well-preserved example of the kind of early religious structures pioneer communities erected in Manitoba upon their arrival in the opening decades of the twentieth century. It was the first church of the parish, built in the centre of a Ukrainian settlement under direction of local craftsmen Ivan Harasymchuk and Semen Masyk. Its distinct domed tower rises above the fields that spread out around it, bringing a conspicuous air to an otherwise simply appointed structure on the prairie horizon. Originally known as the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the building, together with the adjacent Polson Community Hall and Polson Cemetery, once formed the nucleus of the area. Restored in recent years, the church continues to host annual services and special gatherings.

Source: Rural Municipality of Armstrong By-law No. 7/99, June 8, 1999

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Holy Cross Greek Catholic Church site include:
- the grassed and treed grounds located between the Polson Community Hall and Cemetery in the Inwood area, with the church set back from adjacent gravel roads and a large Latin cross on its front lawn.

Key elements that define the church's pleasant vernacular architecture include:
- the basic rectangular massing of the nave under a gable roof, enlivened by a tower, curved apse with a hipped roof and rectangular shed-roofed sacristy at the rear corner, all with horizontal wood siding;
- the square tower centred on the main (east) facade featuring three tiers, the lower two with pyramidal roofs, the top tier becoming octagonal and the whole surmounted by a metal-clad dome with a Latin cross
- the smaller, metal-clad pyramidal dome crowning a simple cupola at the junction of the apse and main roof, topped by a Greek cross;
- the variety of openings, including the tower's pointed windows and bull's eye, the round-arched main entrance with a large fanlight, the nave's tall, round-arched and double-hung sash windows, etc.;
- the minimal details, including the double-door main entrance, the simple wooden window casings and frames painted to contrast with the facades, the brick chimney, etc.

Key elements that define the church's lively interior layout, finishes and details include:
- the formal plan organized by the narthex, centre-aisle nave, raised sanctuary and adjoining sacristy, with an east choir loft supported by two columns and accessed by simple L-shaped wooden stairs;
- the plank floors, walls, gambrel-shaped ceiling and loft balustrade painted in historically accurate colours;
- the sanctuary under a lower, segmentally organized ceiling and separated from the nave by a full-height wooden iconostas containing three arched doorways;
- the practical and symbolic details, including the wooden pews, wood-panelled double nave doors, exposed wood stove and pipe, numerous framed icons, etc.