The CCA
and heritage
A heritage gem in the historic heart of the village
Built in 1870, this church has remained authentic and is unanimously recognized for its beauty and warm simplicity. It is also renowned for its acoustic quality, which is greatly appreciated by the many professional musicians who have performed there since 2013.
In May 2021, the CCA acquired All Saints Church with the aim of protecting this heritage building from inevitable deterioration or real estate speculation and providing the village with a cultural community center.
In collaboration with the municipality of Abercorn and the Association pour la culture et pour le patrimoine d'Abercorn (ACPA), the CCA contributed to the adoption of a bylaw to protect the church through a “heritage property designation,” similar to the two other buildings that make up the heritage heart of the village, St. Simon's Catholic Church and the Little Red Schoolhouse.
Since its construction in 1870, All Saints Church has been a place of worship for 150 years. It has served several generations of Abercorn residents of different religious denominations (Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and Anglican) who came to attend Sunday services and various religious ceremonies related to baptisms, weddings, funerals, and other Christian rites.
This building, unique in its use and symbolic significance, is distinguished by its distinctive architecture.
A brief history of this place of successive worship
All Saints Church was built in 1870 directly opposite the first church, which had been erected a few years earlier in an isolated area of the Shepard’s Mills settlement. This area would later become the heart of the village of Abercorn.
This place of worship was originally called Union Church because it welcomed several non-conformist parishioners who had left the Anglican Church to form the Union Church Society of Abercorn. This multi-denominational temple also welcomed Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Congregationalist communities, who used this church for their liturgy.
In the 1920s, several members left Union Church to join the United Church of Sutton. The Anglican community of All Saints, which at the time occupied the church opposite, moved to this more suitable place of worship and then sold its former property, built in 1865, to the Catholic Church (now Saint-Simon Church). The new Anglican church was then renamed All Saints Church.
A witness to more than a century and a half of religious life in Abercorn, All Saints Church is the second oldest place of worship in the municipality and is of undeniable historical interest.
Distinctive architecture
All Saints Church represents an interesting and rare architectural style in the region. With architecture influenced by the presence of several religious denominations, it stands out from other Anglican churches.
The building is a typical example of a New England Meeting House. Its front façade features two doors at each end with eaves and corbels, as well as three mitred windows in the center, the middle one being larger than the others.
Also noteworthy are its white-painted clapboard siding, wooden mitered windows, square-based bell tower with an octagonal lantern located at the roof ridge, and numerous white-painted wooden ornamental details (carved door and window frames, ornate corner boards, wide molded fascia boards, cornice returns, etc.) that contribute to the architectural coherence of the whole.
The church has a sober and elegant architecture, which incorporates some characteristics of the neoclassical style.
Source: Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec
