Here's how we came to find this church:
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 bottom right corner of
Page 37 of that book.
While touring PEI we had stopped for breakfast at the locals' favorite breakfast spot in Alberton and struck up a conversation with a table full of locals. After a few minutes one asked if we had yet sampled the local lobster. On our negative reply she told us where and how to buy some live lobster. She then informed us that we were to come to her place that afternoon at around 3 PM and she would cook them for us so we could gorge ourselves on lobster on her patio.
It turned out that they had received some (like 75 pounds) of fresh snow crab from a friend and the whole family were, that afternoon, cooking and canning snow crab. [WOW - is fresh snow crab ever sweet, it is sensational!!!] We dutifully downed all the lobster we could eat (
MAGNIFICENT) and upon hearing that we were interested in old churches and cemeteries, they directed us to one that was nearby, mentioning that we should take the path from the cemetery to the beach, as there were some nice rock formations there.
The church mentioned above is Christ Anglican Church, begun in 1850, along Highway 12 about one kilometre south of Kildare Capes. The Church has an interesting story. The cemetery began with the death of Hannah Garland (St. John’s) Travers, who was buried on the family farm, a part of which became the cemetery at the rear of this church.
In 1864-1866 local farmers built the first Christ Anglican Church on the site, which was in continuous use until it burned to the ground in 1923. In 1924, the disused Methodist Church at Montrose, a few miles away was skidded down the frozen Montrose and Kildare Rivers and up the coast, to be placed on the site of the burned church. That church had been built across the river from the present Montrose United Church in about 1885.
From the Maritime Conference Archives
The first Presbyterian church in Montrose was built in 1885. There was also a Methodist church across the river from the present site. Anticipating church union, the Methodist Church was sold to the Anglicans, whose church had burned, in 1924.
The Presbyterian Church became the United Church building in 1925. That church building burned in May 1944 and a new building was opened on November 11, 1945.
Now a Provincial Historic Place, it is no longer in continuous use. It, like the United Church in Montrose, holds services for vacationers in the summer months.
At the entrance to the church is a bronze memorial plaque affixed to a large stone which commemorates 160 fishermen who died in the gale of 1851, some of whome are buried in the church's cemetery. At the rear of the cemetery is a similar memorial stone.