Both the first and second Presbyterian Churches to be built on this site, this is the third church to have served the Presbyterian congregation of Lot 16. The first was built at a cemetery, about 4 kilometres east on Highway 123, which was later turned over to the Baptists and is now Belmont Baptist Cemetery.
This church, still Presbyterian, was first built on donated land at a time then the road ran to the east of the cemetery. This was in the early 1820s. When the road was rerouted the church found itself facing the wrong direction, away from the road. As a result, the decision was made to tear the building down and rebuild on the same site, but facing in the correct direction. Beginning in 1876 a second church was built, using many materials from the old building, opening for its first service on February 11, 1877.
Since 1877 the building has benefited from many upgrades and renovations, including the addition of a vestry between 1911 and 1915, the placement of a foundation under the building in 1948 and electrification in 1952. It is said that the church uses the original lights (we assume this to mean fixtures, not bulbs).
As opposed to the situation in Lot 14, which created a huge rift in the congregation, in 1925, with
Church Union in Canada, Lot 16 Presbyterian chose to join the United Church with barely a ripple in the congregation. A number of members, though they continued to attend the United Church, continued to profess allegiance to the Presbyterian Church, never causing friction within the church.
A book has been written about this church,
Lot 16 United Church and its People. Excerpts from the book, digitized by
Island Lives, have been included below.
The first Presbyterian service conducted in English on St. John's Island occurred at Princetown (Malpeque) on June 3, 1770 as the ship Falmouth was anchored in Richmond Bay. The Falmouth had sailed from Greenock, Scotland on April 1, 1770 with approximately sixty Scottish families destined for settlement on the Island.
The [Lot 16] Presbyterians used, as their first church, a log cabin situated on the farm of Archibald Campbell of Belmont. The cabin, which also served as a school, didn't have pews for seating; rather, there was a bench that went around the walls, leaving the centre bare. The 1863 Lake Map shows the school on the same side of
the road as the cemetery. When the church leaders made the decision to build the new Presbyterian Church at the Central location, the cemetery was turned over to the Baptist tradition. There's no
indication of what happened to the log cabin church.
Although the date the first Presbyterian church was built on the current site is not known, several facts are generally accepted. The church was built by Robert Milligan who emigrated from Scotland in 1819 and was made one of the original elders in 1822. Milligan's church had a life span of approximately fifty years, thus it must have been constructed in the early 1820s.
Several factors influenced the decision to dismantle the church. A new road was constructed to the back of the church, resulting in the church doors and steeple facing in the wrong direction. Also the old church was such a heavy building that, with no foundation, it was sinking into the ground. Perhaps the most influential reason for a new church was the decision to build a Presbyterian Church in Summerside, leaving Lot 16 with a considerable reduction in the size of the congregation and financial resources.
Much of the old church lumber was salvaged for the building of the new church on the same site. Time and thought went into the planning of the new structure. An architect, Mr. T. Ramsay, was hired to design a smaller and simpler church. The contractor for the building was David Kirk, a native of Central Lot 16.
Construction of the existing church began in 1876. Considering the size of the project and the equipment employed by the carpentry trade at the time, Kirk proved himself a most competent contractor as the church was ready for the first worship service on February 11, 1877, nine months after the decision to build...
Union between the Presbyterian Church and Methodist Church in Lot 16 actually happened on June 6, 1921. Both church congregations were experiencing declining membership and realized their best hope for a vibrant church was to join together. Since the later years of the nineteenth century, the Methodists in Lot 16 always had a good relationship with the Presbyterians and simply "threw in" their lot with them. The union vote of 1925 saw the Lot 16 Presbyterian Church
join the United Church of Canada with no real debate around the issue. While they made no protest, some Presbyterians in Lot 16 attended the United Church without ever joining, and died calling themselves devout Presbyterians.