in 1925, forming Trinity United Church and using St. John's Presbyterian Kirk as their church. The old Methodist church became the church hall. Built in 1891, the church stands at the bottom of the Old Kirk Burying Ground, which was established by Loyalists in 1784. The first Presbyterian Church was built in the same year, 1784.
The cemetery contains the remains of many of the early settlers of Shelburne, with many headstones dating from the eighteenth century. There are upward of one hundred headstones in the cemetery and there are likely many unmarked graves, as well. The cemetery appears not to have been used for many decades.
That first church was a temporary building, replaced in 1803-1804 by St. John's Kirk, which was sold and moved when the present church was built in its place in 1891. Wood framed, the building stands on a granite block foundation and is still shingle clad. It has a stepped three storey bell tower with a very tall octagonal steeple with four gablets at its base, forming the gables of the belfry.
Trinity United Church
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
The Trinity United Church is located on the corner of John and Hammond Streets in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. This one-and-a-half storey wooden church was built in 1891. A large cemetery is also located on the upper slope of the property. The building, cemetery and property are included in the municipal designation.
HERITAGE VALUE
Trinity United Church is valued for its architecture and for its association with the development of the Presbyterian Church in Shelburne.
Among the Shelburne Loyalists who settled the town of Shelburne there were numerous Presbyterians belonging to the Kirk Church of Scotland. The burying ground located at the present Trinity United Church dates back to the construction of the first, though temporary, Presbyterian Church in 1784. Most of the early Kirk Church of Scotland settlers, such as George Gracie, Matthew Dripps and Alex Leyburn are buried in it.
In 1803-1804, St. John's Kirk was built adjoining the burying ground. It was used until it was sold and moved to make way for the new Trinity United Presbyterian Church. The church that stands today was opened in 1891. At the 1925 union to form the United Church of Canada, the church became Trinity United Church.
This one-and-a-half storey wooden building is set on a granite block foundation. The main body of the church and the attached vestry have steeply pitched gable roofs and wood shingle cladding, some of which is fish scale pattern. The Gothic Revival-style stained glass windows have pointed labels and plain lug sills. The pointed steeple is set on a rectangular three-storey base with buttressed corners and a string course mid-way up the base. There is decorative moulding marking the string course. The steeple is mounted above a moulded cornice with decorative cut-work at the base. The base of the steeple has four gable-hooded pointed openings with each opening flanked by flared brackets.
The Trinity United Church and Burying Ground are a standing visual record of the development of the Presbyterian Church and the perpetuation of a way of worship brought to Shelburne in the late eighteenth century.
CHARACTER-DEFINING ELEMENTS
Character-defining elements of the Trinity United Church include:
- one-and-a-half storey wood structure;
- granite block foundation;
- steeply pitched gable roof;
- wood shingle cladding;
- Gothic Revival-style stained glass windows with pointed labels and plain lug sills;
- pointed steeple set on a rectangular three-storey base with buttressed corners and a string course;
- Palladian window in the west;
- Rose window over the entry;
- location on a prominent lot in the centre of Shelburne.
Character-defining elements of the Old Kirk Burying Ground include:
- location on a prominent lot in the centre of Shelburne;
- historic headstones carved by local masons;
- absence of roads or automobile thoroughfare;
- historic fences surrounding some plots;
- granite slabs supporting part of the knoll.
From Historic Places Canada