Evangelical Covenant Church
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
This house of worship, with its front gable façade and prominent square tower, stands on the southwest corner of the intersection of Stanley and Silica Streets in the Uphill residential neighbourhood of Nelson, B.C.
HERITAGE VALUE
The building is important as one of Nelson’s most impressive church structures, built as a Congregationalist Church at a time when Nelson was at the peak of its development into the region’s economic and administrative centre, with a large and stable middle class population.
The building was designed by the locally prominent architect Alexander Carrie. The building’s stylistic references include gabled roofs, gothic window proportions and a landmark crenellated tower along with 13 stained glass windows added by the St. Paul’s Presbyterian congregation. Its great size and exuberant detailing make the building a stand-out among its contemporary Protestant churches, which were generally much smaller, and very simply detailed. A contemporary of the nearby St. Saviour’s Pro Cathedral (1898), the building is a symbol of the determination of the pioneers of Nelson to build a city of great stature, the “Queen City”.
Located with many other churches in the lower reaches of the well-appointed residential streets of the Uphill neighbourhood, this building is a valuable contributor to the physical transition between the large commercial buildings of the commercial core and the houses of its white-collar workers, both because of its substantial size and institutional character.
The building is valued as having been home to a number of uses, including a Congregational Church, St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, St. Paul’s United Church, Radio CKKC, and finally, the Evangelical Covenant Church. The building is sited and designed well for its site: the tower (serving as the main entrance) is prominently located on the corner of the site and block and the main stained glass window faces east for good lighting in the mornings.
From the City of Nelson Heritage Register, Page 39