In the Year 2007 Sterling Stratton put together a picture book entitled
The Complete Book of Island Churches At The Turn Of The Century. It included 302 Pen & Ink Sketches done in 2000, including all churches in Prince County, Queens County, Kings County, Summerside & Charlottetown, in other words, all the churches on the Island. This sketch can be found in the top left corner of
Page 65 of that book.
Georgian/Colonial in style, the church was designed by members of the congregation, which were then Christian Disciples whose faith was influenced by Baptist theology. The congregation was founded in 1810 and a small church built in 1813. This building, built in 1836-1839, is the
oldest Christian Disciples Church in Canada.
From 1907 to 1947 the church was operated as a Baptist charge in conjunction with Baptist churches in Alexandra and Hazelbrook, when it apparently again became an Evangelical Christian Church.
This is one of the very few churches ever to have "
risen from the dead", as it were. Closed for regular services in 1972, it languished for years, holding only annual anniversary services and being visited by vandals until it was restored and reopened for regular services on August 7, 1988. The church seems to be alive and well as it currently maintains a
Facebook Page.
Cross Roads Christian Church is the
oldest Christian Disciples Church in Canada. Established in 1810.
The Church at Cross Roads was founded in 1810 by John R. Stewart, an immigrant from Perthshire, Scotland. The first Meeting House was a log cabin built in 1813; it was a small building (30'x20') with no plaster, pews, pulpit or anything to mark it as a House of Prayer.
Construction of the present church began in 1836, the lawyers for the Estate of Peter DesBrisay Stewart leased one acre of land for the cemetery and Meeting House for 999 years at a rental rate of one shilling Sterling per acre, payable every December 25th, with the provision that people of all faiths could use the burial grounds and the Meeting House could be used by others, if not in use at that time by the local congregation. By the turn of the century, Cross Roads had lost many of its member through death and migration to other parts of Canada and the US. However, the members continued to meet on Sunday mornings. In 1925, the church was rededicated and extensive repairs were made to the building. A false ceiling was put in, and the upper windows were removed on the sides.
Due to many reasons, the church closed for regular services in 1972, only annual anniversary services were held up to 1987. During that time, the church was vandalized and in major need of repair. In 1987, a major renovation was undertaken with the original interior ceiling, added in 1925, returned back to the original shape of 1836. This resulted in the upper set of windows being reopened. Also, the original construction of the building was revealed. Pegged mortise and tenon joints, hand-hewn timbers, hand-riven or split laths, horsehair plaster, and hand made nails were found. All the frame timbers were hand-hewn on three sides and the fourth side seemed to be sawed with perhaps a pit axe.
Apart from some of the sills and the floor, most of the frame was a solid as it was in 1836. It was also at this time, that the building was moved 30 feet back from its original site to accommodate parking and the new entrance to the property.
On August 7, 1988 the church was officially reopened for regular services, for the first time since 1972.
From the Town of Stratford