Description of Historic Place

The Anglican Church is a Municipal Heritage Property occupying a 0.78 ha parcel of land in the former Hamlet of Prongua within the Rural Municipality of Battle River No. 438. The property features a small, one-storey, wood-frame church built in 1906-07, and a fenced cemetery, located on the eastern edge of the Prongua townsite.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Anglican Church lies in its association with its congregation and its use as a spiritual and social centre for the Anglican community in the Prongua district. The church provided regular services from 1907 until 1960 and has offered occasional services on special occasions since then. The church's construction was funded entirely by the congregation and it was built by members of the local congregation during the winter of 1906-07. Andrew Suffern, a member of the congregation, mortared the stones and plastered the willow log walls. Many fomer parishioners are buried in the cemetery adjacent to the church.

The heritage value of the Anglican Church also lies in its association with Anthony Prongua, an original settler in the area and a prominent member of the early congregation. The namesake of the community, Prongua, a retired constable with the North-West Mounted Police, donated the land upon which the church was constructed. Prongua is buried in the church’s cemetery.

The heritage value of building also lies in the architecture and historical integrity of the property. The church retains its original mortared stone and plastered willow logs, building materials and wood-frame construction, as well as some of its original windows. Its interior retains its original altar, sanctuary and sacristy. Influenced by the Gothic Revival style, common in rural churches in Saskatchewan, the Anglican Church features a rectangular plan with a gable roof and pointed-arch windows with tracery. The style was most notable in a crenellated wood-frame bell tower with louvered pointed-arch openings, which graced the entrance of the building until 1960. Original spruce trees remain planted between the church and the cemetery.

Source:

Rural Municipality of Battle River No. 438 Bylaw 67-1997.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Anglican Church lies in the following character-defining elements:
-those elements that reflect its association with its congregation and its use as a spiritual and social centre for the Anglican community, such as its mortared stone, plastered willow log walls, the headstones marking former parishioners' graves in the cemetery, and the position of the church and cemetery on their original locations;
-those elements that reflect the church’s association with Anthony Prongua, such as his grave in the cemetery;
-those elements that reflect the church’s historical integrity and architecture, including its rectangular plan, gable roof and pointed-arch windows with tracery, the form, materials and spatial arrangement of the altar, sanctuary and sacristy and the spruce and willow trees on the grounds.