The forest was cleared and work began on the church in 1882. By June 6, 1883 it was sufficiently complete to hold its first mass. For a new parish in a sparsely settled land, this turned out to be a rather large building. Being a fan particularly of handsome steeples, this one is a bit of a treat. Gothic Revival in general style, it stands atop a square bell tower which is set almost completely into the gable roof. From the belfry up the spire becomes octagonal and has a row of four gablets above the four gables of the belfry. Quite tall and thin, the spire ends in a small wooden cross.
Today the church, in spite of a close brush with being closed by the diocese, the church continues to thrive. It has obviously been the recipient of a lot of TLC in its life, as it remains in quite good condition today.
The close brush came about recently when assessments by the Diocese of Antigonish indicated that the building was in sufficiently poor condition as to be hazardous. The diocese had concluded that the cost of rehabilitation, about $350,000, couldn't be justified and it was contemplating closing the church.
Parishioners, however, had their own assessments done, the results of which painted a less dark picture, estimating the cost of restoration to be nearer $125,000. After convincing the diocese not to close the church, the parish quickly raised $80,000 of the estimated $125,000 required less than three weeks.
Several
news articles in the Halifax Chronicle Herald covered the story, one of which is reproduced in part below.
Stellarton church Our Lady of Lourdes
to stay open
FRANCIS CAMPBELL TRURO BUREAU
Published November 16, 2015 - 9:19pm
STELLARTON — Parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic parish in Stellarton do believe in miracles.
“We’re certainly regarding it as one,” Darlene Taylor said of the recent announcement from the Antigonish Diocese that it was reversing a decision to close the 132-year-old church.
“It’s not too easy to turn these decisions around.”
But Taylor and a group of determined parishioners who formed an action committee to oppose the diocesan closure decision leaned on professional structural assessments of the building to provide Bishop Brian Dunn with a mind-changing report.
Taylor said that last May, when the diocese announced a pastoral planning committee to assess the area churches, including Holy Name in Westville and St. John the Baptist in New Glasgow, parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes felt they would be safe.
“Our church was widely attended,” Taylor said.
“We have about 470 people every weekend at our masses. We have 125 children in Sunday school. We were financially sound. First of all, we were sort of surprised we were being assessed. Nonetheless, we still didn’t feel that vulnerable. With our attendance, it just seemed we weren’t a risk.”
But the diocese determined it was structurally unsound and required some $350,000 to fix it up. There were also issues with unpaid levies and debt that the parishioners were not aware of, Taylor said.
Her group called in electricians and contractors and debunked many of the diocese’s required repairs, she said.
Rev. Donald MacGillivray, a diocesan spokesman, agreed that the fixes weren’t as serious as first thought.
“We recently thought that the building was structurally unsound,” he said
“We found out that that’s not the case, but there are significant maintenance issues that need to be attended to. Do they need to be attended to within the year? No, but do we plan to address them? Definitely.”
Taylor said her group came up with a figure of $125,000 to fix the church, a restoration that would include carpeting, paint and cosmetic work. The committee initiated a pledge campaign that came up with a promise of $80,000 in less than three weeks. Taylor said the pledges came in increments of about $500 to $1,000 from Catholic and non-Catholic residents.
“It was a real community effort. People don’t want to see it close, even if they weren’t a member of the parish.”
Read more at the Halifax Chronicle Herald, Page 70