Description of Historic Place

Cromer United Church, built in 1911 for
a Methodist congregation, is a wood-frame structure on spacious grounds in Cromer. The municipal designation
applies to the church and the lots it occupies.

Heritage Value

Cromer United Church
is a fine example of a modest Gothic Revival-style wooden church that was built in the early twentieth
century and continues its function in a small rural village. With its rectangular footprint, tall tower,
subtle exterior detailing and uncluttered auditorium plan, the structure reflects a pre-World War I modernizing
influence in Methodist church design. It also provides a link, both symbolic and concrete, to the origins
of Cromer, a community that has seen much change but continues to thrive.

Source: Rural Municipality
of Pipestone By-law No. 7-December 10, 1992

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements
that define the heritage character of the Cromer United Church site include:
- the large grassed lot,
with mature trees to the north, located in a mainly residential area on the western edge of Cromer and
the building's placement on an east-west axis close to the street

Key exterior elements that define
the church's unassuming Gothic Revival style include:
- the rectangular wood-frame mass with a high
concrete foundation and walls clad with horizontal wood siding painted white with contrasting dark trim
-
the complex roofline composed of a moderately pitched and truncated hip roof with short cross-gables
on three sides
- the northeast corner tower capped by a steeply pitched pyramidal roof and intricate
metal finial
- the restrained Gothic Revival features, notably the three-part pointed windows with tracery
centred on all but the west elevation and flanked by single openings in the same style on the north and
south walls
- other features such as the tower's louvred south opening, the tall square brick chimney,
the sizeable basement windows, etc.

Key elements that define the church's functional interior include:

- the auditorium plan, including the high truncated ceiling over the bright open nave containing three
sections of pews separated by two interior aisles, a centred altar and pulpit and an elevated choir platform
extending across much of the west wall
- the coloured glass in geometric patterns in the large windows
-
the fine furnishings and details, including the oak pews and pulpit, the stained wood window trim, flooring
and wainscotting, the wooden balustrades on the choir platform and basement staircases, etc.