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 40 of that book.
Built in 1927, Keir Memorial Presbyterian Church hosted its final services in 1983. Some time later it became the Keir Memorial Museum, a project of the Malpeque Historical Society. The Victorian styled building stands across the street from another historic church, the
Princetown United Church.
Originally Princetown Presbyterian Church, it became Princetown United Church in June of 1925, with Church Union in Canada. Many of the congregation chose not to join the United Church and, as a result this church, Keir Memorial Presbyterian Church, was built in 1927 to house the remaining Presbyterian congregation. Unfortunately, dwindling attendance forced its closure in 1983.
Malpeque has had the distinction of having continuous church services longer than any other congregation on the Island. Malpeque has been called the cradle of Presbyterianism on Prince Edward Island.
Rev. John Keir came to Prince Edward Island as a missionary under the auspices of the General Associate Synod, Scotland. He was a scholar, teacher, theologian and preacher. He was called by Presbytery to Malpeque to preach, and this began a most remarkable pastorate which lasted for fifty years.
He was ordained in 1810 and was the first protestant ordination on Prince Edward Island. The first presbytery on Prince Edward Island was organized with Dr. Keir as moderator in 1821. He organized the Princetown Literary and Scientific Society and Library, which were the first on the Island.
In 1843, he became the first Principal Professor of Theology in the Presbyterian Divinity Collage. Classes were held in his home until the present Pine Hill Divinity Hall in Halifax was built. He continued to be the Professor of Pine Hill from 1843 to 1858.
Our museum is very unique because it is housed in the former Keir Memorial Presbyterian Church, which was built in 1927 and closed in 1983.
From the Community of Malpeque