Description of Historic Place

Christ Anglican Church, a small, robust stone church erected in 1897-98, sits prominently at the intersection of a main commercial thoroughfare and a residential street in the village of Cartwright. Surrounded by stucco and brick buildings, the church overlooks a war cenotaph situated in the intersection. The municipal designation applies to the church and the lot upon which it sits.

Heritage Value

Christ Anglican Church, one of several Anglican fieldstone facilities constructed during an era of unprecedented church building at the turn of the twentieth century in Manitoba, is a modest example of English Gothic architecture tempered by pioneer conditions. Compact and minimally ornamented, the structure reflects the masonry skills found among southern Ontarians who settled in the Cartwright area, as well as the local availability of a desirable building material. The simple intact interior dates from 1910 when it was rebuilt following a fire. Now established as a local landmark, Christ Anglican Church is distinguished from its surroundings by its Gothic styling, stonework and attractive stained-glass windows.

Source: Village of Cartwright By-law No. 221/02, February 21, 2003

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the site's heritage character and landmark status include:
- its prominent location at the intersection of Broadway and Curwen streets in Cartwright
- the church's east-facing front elevation, with grassed areas surrounding the building on the east and west sides and a substantial open grassed lot on the north side

Key elements that define the church's external character and `rough' Gothic style include:
- the three connected rectangular volumes, consisting of the easterly-oriented chancel and nave and the main entry in the south-facing porch
- the distinguishable form, emphasized through the size and the height of the steeply pitched gable roof
- the multicoloured and massive load-bearing fieldstone walls, broken up by deeply inset pointed arched windows with basic tracery; most notably, two elaborate stained- and leaded-glass windows in the east and south facades

Key elements that define the church's internal heritage character, dating from 1910, include:
- the unobstructed interior space, made intimate through diminutive proportions and reinforced by weighty, but unimposing white plaster walls
- the central aisle leading to the chancel, which is distinguished from the nave by changes in level and dimensions
- an unpretentious material quality expressed in interior components such as milled lumber, plaster walls, V-joint board wainscotting, V-joint board false ceiling, varnished, but unpainted plank flooring and simple wooden pews