Description of Historic Place

Saint-Thomas de Memramcoock Church is a stone Roman Catholic church in the Neoclassical and Gothic Revival styles, located on Centrale Street, in Memramcook.

Heritage Value

Saint-Thomas de Memramcook Church is designated a Local Historic Place in recognition of the importance of Saint-Thomas de Memramcook parish during the Acadian re-colonization of south-eastern New Brunswick after the Deportation. Its central, elevated location, overlooking the eastern side of the Memramcook Valley, is an attractive feature, making the Saint-Thomas church visible for several miles around.

Heritage value also lies in its association with the priests of Saint-Thomas parish who contributed to its construction. In 1840, Father Ferdinand Gauvreau came up with the idea of erecting a stone church to replace the wooden one, which had become too small. In 1855, Father François-Xavier Lafrance completed the interior of the church and presided over its official consecration on August 15, 1856. The remains of Father Thomas Leroux, the first parish priest of Memramcook, were later buried under the church’s sanctuary. In 1879, Father Camille Lefebvre, C.S.C., had the wooden steeple replaced with a magnificent stone tower surmounted by a steeple in which two new bells were installed at the time of the first Acadian National Convention, in 1881. Fathers Dismas LeBlanc, C.S.C., and Eugène Daoust, C.S.C., supervised the renovation work carried out in 1934.

Special heritage value is associated with its architecture and the fact that, during construction and renovation, the entire structure and the stone sculptures were made by local masons with stone from local quarries, notably those in Beaumont, Boudreau Village, and Village-du-Bois.

Source: Municipal building of the village of Memramcook – File: 472 Saint-Thomas de Memramcook Church

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements that describe the exterior of the structure include:
- stone tower containing a carillon of three bells topped by a slender spire supporting a cross;
- Neoclassical-style main section made of buff sandstone from local quarries;
- four pinnacles surrounding the bell tower;
- four small spires on the façade;
- ogival windows on the facade and side walls;
- Gothic Revival portals;
- sculptures of dragon heads and acanthus leaves on the portal archings;
- two stone faces half-way up the bell tower;
- two cornerstones;
- 1934 addition on the building’s west side, built of materials similar to those used in the original construction.

The character-defining elements that describe the interior of the structure include:
- stained-glass windows on either side of the nave;
- two richly hued rose windows;
- oil-on-canvas stations of the cross;
- fresco of the glorious Christ;
- Sainte-Anne chapel and sacristy with sliding panels opening onto the sanctuary;
- tombstone over Father Leroux’s remains under the sanctuary;
- sculpted oak trim in the sanctuary;
- Casavant organ;
- parish hall in the basement of the sacristy.