It’s been 56 years since the decommissioning of the Essonville Anglican Church, but Phil O’Reilly believes the local landmark still plays a vital role in the community.
While other staples of the hamlet have faded into history, the old church building – now named Essonville Historic Church – remains as the sole reminder of the farming and logging community that thrived from the early 1870s into the mid-to-late 1900s.
“This is the history of Essonville. There’s not a whole lot left in terms of buildings – the old schools, the post office, the store, they’re all gone,” said O’Reilly.
He’s one of about a dozen people actively working to keep the structure’s spirit alive. Now owned by Highlands East township, it’s considered a community space – one that people can rent for weddings and other private functions.
It recently reopened, hosting a Decoration Day event in August – following a $82,300 foundation repair covered by the township.
“There were all sorts of conversations last year – what was the need for the church? What’s its purpose? Some were really pushing for [it to be demolished], turn the space into a monument… but this is like the last thread of what this place once was,” O’Reilly said. “That’s the kind of history that should be maintained.”
The congregation – the first in Monmouth township – was established in 1888 after Rev. Arthur Watham purchased a 100-acre property off what is now Essonville Line. The building was constructed using three pine trees sourced from a nearby forest, which were milled at the Dunford sawmill at Lake Brigadoon.
The church’s pews were moulded from the same lumber, while the original bell and stained-glass windows were imported from England.
“It was the hub of the community for a lot of years,” said Carman Coumbs, who has been visiting the church his entire life.
He was baptized there in 1950 and recalls attending dozens of nuptials and funerals, communions and Easter services.
As work at the 12 sawmills that once served the area dried up, people moved away, and attendance dropped. By the mid-1960s, there was only a handful of regular parishioners, Coumbs recalled. After the Anglican Church of Canada opted to close the site in 1969, Coumbs said he, his mother, father and two sisters were the only people in attendance for its final service – led by the site’s last minister, Church Army Capt. R. Sims.
Back in its heyday, the building was only open for half of the year, Coumbs said.
“You couldn’t heat it enough for people to stay there, so we’d go from house to house for services. Folks would take turns hosting – I remember us having lots at the farm. But, slowly but surely, interest went away,” Coumbs noted.
O’Reilly has strong ties to the building, too. His in-laws, Larry and Ruth Strong, were the last couple to be married there, in 1965, before it ceased to be a church; while he and his wife, Kelly, said their ‘I dos’ in the striking white building in 1993.
It’s been a lot of work maintaining the site, Coumbs said – in the 1980s, it took five years to raise enough money to replace several broken stained-glass windows.
“That’s how the committee that oversees the church today was formed,” Coumbs noted, with the start-up group boasting six members.
Since then. The exterior of the building has been repainted three times, the interior plaster repaired and repainted, the steel roof painted, organ pump and belfry rebuilt, propane heating installed, and new parking lot and walkway constructed.
The committee is looking for new members – it meets four times per year and takes charge in organizing the annual Decoration Day and Christmas concert. Anyone interested in helping can contact O’Reilly at essonville17@gmail.com.
