Restored museum commemorates ‘The Old Church’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/04/2021 (1527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A lovingly restored wing of the St Pierre Museum is home to a new permanent exhibit that retraces the construction, heyday, and demolition of the village’s towering, turn-of-the-century Roman Catholic parish.

Those who attended the museum’s annual Sugaring Off Festival April 10-11 were allowed a sneak peak of the exhibit, entitled La Vielle Église (The Old Church), which will open this summer.

St Pierre resident Sol Desharnais spent months curating the exhibit and restoring the floor, ceiling, and walls of museum’s vestibule and hallways. Acoustical tiles were peeled off to reveal a hardwood ceiling. Underfoot, 120-year-old fir floorboards were uncovered and refinished.

A local artisan milled trim and casings to match the originals found in the museum building, built in 1900 to house a teaching convent owned by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, who operated schools in the building for six decades.

The project was a deeply personal one for Desharnais, who was in elementary school when the old church was demolished in January 1981. He can still recall the energy that coursed through the church when it was full of people.

“It was tangible. You could feel it.”

While working on the museum restorations, Desharnais burned incense to recapture “that old church smell.” It brought to mind more childhood memories of the building that was the social and religious heart of St Pierre for 80 years.

Completed in 1904 after five years of construction, the church, standing 125 feet, was one of the tallest wooden structures in Manitoba.

“It was the pride of the community,” Desharnais said.

An eight-foot cross atop its steeple it was illuminated at night.

“It was kind of like a beacon,” Desharnais said.

During construction, mass was held under a large tent erected on a platform near Joubert Creek.

Building the church was a massive community undertaking. Fifty-five thousand board-feet of timber was cut and transported during the winter of 1899 alone. A local settler from Quebec, David Côté, set up a sawmill in the forest. More timber arrived by rail to the Otterburne train station. Later, 120,000 bricks were used to complete the church’s exterior.

Archbishop Louis-Philippe Adélard Langevin blessed the church on Jan. 20, 1901. Decades of Sunday services, weddings, and social gatherings followed, but by the 1950s, structural studies identified a long list of repairs.

“The church was in desperate need of some attention,” Desharnais said.

In 1979, the province deemed the building dangerous and ordered it to close, setting off a bitter two-year dispute over whether to repair the building or demolish it and start over.

The parish priest, Rev. Lionel Bouvier, and the Archdiocese favoured demolition, as did some parishioners. Others wanted to repair the building—a more expensive plan but one that supporters argued would prevent the loss of priceless heritage.

As the dispute wore on, some who favoured repair withheld their tithes, staged sit-ins at the Archdiocese offices, and presented a list of demands that included Bouvier’s departure, a restoration study, and a village referendum on the building’s fate.

“It really divided the community,” said Desharnais, whose own family was among those who began attending another parish.

He recalled witnessing fights in the schoolyard as even the youngest generations chose sides.

In the end, heavy equipment rolled in and a three-day demolition commenced.

“All that was left was an empty space,” Desharnais said. “It was very painful for many people.”

For Desharnais, finding a way to commemorate the old church was a matter of personal conviction. But he wondered if the legacy of the building’s final chapter was still too raw. Wait too long, however, and the stories and memories needed to make the artifacts come alive would be lost forever.

Early in the exhibit planning process, he resolved to keep division and demolition from getting the final word. An historian helped him draft curatorial statements that respected both sides.

The St Pierre Museum had accumulated artifacts from the old church over the years, but hadn’t curated them. Desharnais also asked the community to donate items. Additional research took him to archive rooms in St Boniface.

The exhibit features original artifacts and furnishings from the old church alongside recreations, some of which were fashioned from materials salvaged during demolition.

There are scale replicas of the steel cross and the wooden main tower. The original cornerstone is also on display, along with bricks and a plaster cornice from one of the church’s columns; a pair of round stained-glass windows, and a candelabra used until electricity was installed in 1918.

The church organ, purchased in 1916, was disassembled prior to demolition and buried, never to be seen again. Desharnais contacted the Quebec manufacturer, which sent two pipes from the same organ model.

Interpretive panels tell the story of the church’s central figures, including its architect and first parish priest.

As he swept up sawdust and prepared to welcome the first visitors, Desharnais said he’s pleased with how the exhibit turned out.

“I think it’s a very nice portrait of what the old church was.”

For some, viewing the exhibit may dredge up painful memories. But Desharnais said it’s intended to be “a sacred space where people can do their own healing.”

Raised in St Pierre, Desharnais lived in France for 12 years before returning to his hometown a decade ago. He now lives a block from the museum his grandfather helped establish.

Working close to home all winter was a pandemic “dream job,” Desharnais said. A contemporary artist and designer by trade—his line of handbags and wine totes, marketed under the name Sol Designs, employ natural and upcycled materials, and are sold in boutiques across Canada—he also works as a set designer in the film industry.

He inherited the skilled hands of his father, René Desharnais, a talented carpenter who worked alongside him on the restoration, and who passed away last month.

Desharnais said he pictures his father and grandfather looking down with pride on the exhibit, and the work they accomplished at the museum over three generations.