Description of Historic Place

Upper Sackville United Church is a Gothic Revival religious building located on Pond Shore Road, near the intersection of the Mount View Road and Station Road in Upper Sackville.

Heritage Value

Upper Sackville United Church is designated a Local Historic Place for the history of Methodists in the Tantramar Region and for its Gothic Revival architecture.

Originally from Yorkshire, England, the Methodists settled in the Tantramar Region between 1772 and 1775. From 1790 to 1882, the congregation gathered in a chapel for their regular place of worship. By 1882, the chapel became too small and a church was erected. Originally known as the Upper Sackville Methodist Church, the congregation became members of the United Church of Canada in 1925.

Upper Sackville United Church is recognized for its architecture. In the spring of 1882, Hiram and Silas Copp commenced building on land acquired from Chappell and Ann Fawcett. Richard C. Boxall, architect of this building had come to this area as an engineer in connection with the construction of the Windsor and Annapolis Railway. He was commissioned to design a Methodist Church for the Point de Bute congregation in 1881 and the Upper Sackville used this design for their church in 1882-1883. He incorporated aspects of Bishop John Medley designs for small wooden churches in the country. He added more decorative vergeboard trim in his designs. Prominent citizen Mrs. Mariner Wood gave the pulpit furniture, J.L. Black the chandelier and the stoves were donated by Charles Fawcett and W.B. Dixon. The church was dedicated on November 11, 1883.

Source: Town of Sackville, Historic Places File Cabinet, Upper Sackville United Church File

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements that describe the exterior of Upper Sackville United Church include:
- church layout in three parts, a tower, a distinctive sanctuary, and a Sunday School room at right angles to the main façade;
- prominent buttresses defining each section of church, the tower, the sanctuary, the Sunday School room and the entry porch;
- steeply pitched roof on main building and on the entry porch;
- highly decorated vergeboards on gable end of sanctuary and entrance porch;
- acutely pointed or lancet arched windows with heavy arched moulding;
- doors with the same arched shapes and moulding as the windows;
- pinnacles on the tower.

The character-defining elements that describe the interior of Upper Sackville United Church include:
- pulpit furniture;
- chandelier;
- stoves.