Description of Historic Place

Kola Anglican Church of the Advent, completed in 1884, is a compact wood-frame building surrounded by a cemetery and mature trees several kilometres east of the village of Kola. The municipal designation applies to the church, its cemetery and the grounds they occupy.

Heritage Value

The modest Kola Anglican Church of the Advent is one of the oldest churches in southwestern Manitoba still on its original site. Built by the first wave of British-Ontario settlers to the Arawana district, the structure is an excellent early example of Gothic-inspired design invitingly set on a gentle knoll where its economical but deft features, such as a small bellcote and east window tracery, are displayed to full effect. The largely intact interior, with its warm natural wood finishes and serviceable furnishings, further demonstrates the church's straightforward qualities as a pioneer-era house of worship.

Source: Rural Municipality of Wallace By-law No. 1873, September 28, 1993

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Kola Anglican Church of the Advent site include:
- the building's east-west placement on a modest rise in a large treed plot

Key exterior elements that define the church's restrained Gothic Revival design include:
- the simple rectangular form set beneath a tall, steep, forward-facing gable roof with a shorter gable-roofed entrance porch on the west side
- the small open pyramidal bellcote perched on four posts on the west gable peak
- the orderly fenestration composed of narrow single-hung sash windows in plain wooden pointed arches on the south and north sides and a wider fixed opening with simple Y-tracery centred in the east wall
- details such as the horizontal wood siding, double wood-panelled doors, etc.

Key elements that define the church's unpretentious interior layout and details include:
- the generous vestibule that leads to the cozy open-plan nave containing two sections of pews separated by a centre aisle and a low platform along the west wall fronted by a simple wood rail
- the wood surfaces in natural tones throughout, including the horizontal board walls and ceiling, exposed rafters and tie beams, vertical board wainscotting, polished floor, panelled interior door, plain window surrounds, etc.
- the serviceable furnishings and fixtures, including the porch's wooden benches, the dark-stained pews of simple wood plank construction, the lectern, pulpit, harmonium, stone baptismal font, free-standing wood stove, etc.