Key Number:	HS 5194
Site Name:	McDougall United Church
Other Names:
Site Type:	1603 - Religious: Church, Cathedral or Chapel

Location

ATS Legal Description:

			Twp	Rge	Mer
			52	24	4

Address:	10025 - 101 Street NW
Number:	25
Street:	101 NW
Avenue:	100 NW
Other:
Town:	Edmonton
Near Town:

Media

Type	Number	Date	View	Source

Architectural

Style:	Italianate
Plan Shape:	Rectangular Short Facade
Storeys:	Storeys: 1
Foundation:	Basement/Foundation Wall Material: Concrete
Superstructure:	Nailed Frame
Superstructure Cover:
Roof Structure:	High Gable
Roof Cover:
Exterior Codes:	Massing of Units: Row, Non-Related, Intermediate Wings: None Wall Design and Detail: String or Belt Course Roof Trim - Eaves: Plain Fascia Roof Trim - Eaves: Plain Soffit Roof Trim Material - Eaves: Wood Roof Trim - Verges: Projecting Verges Roof Trim Material - Verges: Wood Towers, Steeples and Domes: Tower Towers, Steeples and Domes: Other Dormer Type: None Chimney Location - Side to Side: Other Chimney Location - Front to Rear: Centre Chimney Stack Material: Brick Chimney Stack Massing: Single Roof Trim - Special Features: None Window - Structural Opening Shape: Other Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Head: None Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Sides: None Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Material: None Window - Sill Type: None Window - Sill Material: None Window - Number of Sashes: Other Window - Opening Mechanism: Other Window - Special Types: Round Main Entrance - Location: Centre (Facade) Main Entrance - Structural Opening Shape: Flat Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Head: Entablature Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Main Entrance - Trim Outside Structural Opening Material: Unknown Main Entrance - Trim Within Structural Opening - Head: Plain Main Entrance - Trim Within Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Main Entrance - Number of Leaves: Other Main Entrance - Leaves - Special Feature: Glass Main Stairs - Location and Design: First or Ground Floor, Without Railing Main Stairs - Direction: Straight Main Porch - Type: Closed Porch Main Porch - Material: Unknown Main Porch - Height: First Storey
Exterior:	Towers on each side flush with facade. Gable ends return. Entablature, belt courses. Arched windows with keystone. Front gable roof with eave returns; bell tower to south side; rose window; stained glass windows; projecting entry with inset front doors; quoining at entry piers; arched window opening; Memorial Hall at rear. *** The exterior walls are of orange-red pressed clay brick laid in English bond, with alternate courses of headers and stretchers. Details bonded into the brickwork such as sills, band-courses and keystones are in natural (buff) pre-cast concrete or artificial stone, while projecting details at the higher levels including bracketed cornices, appear to be of white painted sheet metal. The main facade is a nearly symmetrical composition centred on the gable end of the church auditorium, which is flanked by two square towers advanced ahead of the gable wall. A one-storey entrance portico is advanced further in front of the wall and the towers, returning at its corners to intersect the towers. Paired rusticated brick piers flank ground level doors (and small paired windows above) on each side of the central square headed opening of the portico. Into this opening a straight, broad flight of concrete steps rises and leads to the main entrance doors of the church. The symmetry of this arrangement is varied by the additional height of the corner (south-west) tower which rises through an additional storey designed as a belfry with louvred arched openings. A large round-arched window opens at the centre of the gable wall above the portico. Set within the framing towers, this wall is relieved by pairs of brick pilasters that visually support the gable, which is treated as a pediment with raking and horizontal cornices in sheet metal. The horizontal cornice is interrupted to allow the central arched window with its emphasized keystone rise into an uninterrupted brick surface. The side walls of the auditorium are divided into bays by brick pilasters which rise the full height of the wall. The bays have an identical segmentally arched window below and a larger round-arched window above, both divided vertically into two main lights. These windows and pilasters continue motifs introduced on the main facade. The north wall is continuous for the full five bays of the auditorium wall, returning at the northeast corner to the east facade. The south wall is interrupted by an intersecting gabled wing whose facade is a simplified version of the gabled central section of the main facade. Single brick pilasters support a pedimented gable with an interrupted horizontal cornice. An irregular pattern of openings at the lower levels is surmounted by a pair of round-headed windows whose moulded brick arches rise through the level of the horizontal cornice. The rear (east) face of the church is formed by the returning wall of this intersecting wing, which projects beyond the east wall of the main auditorium. The roof of the projecting wing rises to its ridge where it intersects the auditorium east wall. The east wall of the wing is overlapped by the later east addition. The McDougall Church displays elements of the Victorian Romanesque Revival style. It is well-balanced and solidly protective. The massing and proportions are well-executed in red brick.
Interior:	Oak. Stained glass windows, maple floors, vaulted celing, encircling gallery supported by pillars. The interior of the church is dominated by the auditorium. This is a two-storey hall with a shallow, semi-elliptical smooth plaster vault over the central nave with slightly lower flanking galleries with semi-elliptical vaults. At the west end the raked gallery seating rises to the sill of the large central window of the west facade. The hall is oriented to the east end where a shallow barrel-vaulted chancel is dominated by the organ pipes which fill its upper half. The wood panelled wall below provides a back drop for the choir and minister. The galleries and the side gallery vaults are supported by painted columns with details based on the Tuscan order. The interior was finished in oak with maple floors and contains a seventy-foot vaulted ceiling.
Environment:	Neighbourhood: Downtown Corner location. Property Features: Garden Feature. Located in City Core. McDougall United Church is a landmark for those approaching downtown from the river valley by way of Bellamy Hill. As other historic buildings have been demolished, it has gained in urban design importance as a key element of the view from the south, and also as a marker at the southern edge of the historic heart of the city for those travelling south on 101 Street. With its landscaping on both sides, the architecture of the church provides a welcome relief from the contemporary buildings nearby. As a landmark on the River Valley edge, its importance has been diminished by the Chateau Lacombe which blocks its view from the south. Nevertheless, it remains a landmark for motorists and pedestrians on Bellamy Hill, complemented by the Journal Building across 101 Street, which is similar in scale.
Condition:	Good
Alterations:	Apparent Alterations and/or Additions: Roof Apparent Alterations and/or Additions: Chimney Site: Original A major addition and significant alterations were made to the church in 1954-1955. A two storey addition for church offices and clubrooms, reduced from a larger scheme that included a gymnasium, was built at the southeast corner, extending the church along Mcdonald Drive. The materials were similar to those of the existing building. The only element of the original style carried over to the flat-roofed addition was the division of the wall into bays by full height brick pilasters. The most visually significant alterations to the 1910 building were those made to the entrance in 1954-1955. Interior alterations to the organ and the arrangement of the chancel have not greatly affected the character of the auditorium. Other interior alterations have been made to spaces of little importance to the architectural character and historical interest of the church. The addition to the east extended the important south elevation in materials and in a style consistent with the original structure. Because it is lower than and slightly set back from the gable wall of the original southeast mass, the added block has little effect on the important view of the church from the southwest. Alterations from the original include the removal of the brick double arcade over the front steps, which detracts from the church's original design.

Historical

Construction:	Construction Date:
Construction Started Construction ended	1909/01/01 1910/01/01
Usage:	Usage Date:
Religious: Church, Cathedral or Chapel Educational: Museum or Gallery	1909/01/01 1970/06/11
Owner:	Owner Date:
Methodist Church Trustees & Board of McDougall McDougall United church	1970/06/11

Architect:	H.A. Magoon
Builder:	Chas May
Craftsman:	N/A
History:	Built 1909, the McDougall Church is the oldest major inner-city Methodist church in Edmonton and central Alberta. Estimated cost $70,000. Cornerstone laid by Mrs. E.V. Hardisty - McDougall's daughter. Mid-1950's, major renovations made. 1925 - Following merger of Methodist, Congregational and Presbyterian churches, became McDougall United Church. 1887 October 25, Owner: The Methodist Church. 1972 June 7, Owner: Trustees of the McDougall United Church. Refer to title search for McDougall United Church. Built in 1871 and dedicated in 1873, moved several times; current church situated approximately where the first Church was built. Constructed in 1873 by Rev. George McDougall. It and the Manse were the first buildings to be built outside walls of fort Edmonton. Used as a Methodist Church from 1873 - 1892, then was used as a local dormitory for Alberta College. Used as a museum since 1946. Oldest building in Edmonton, it has remained near its original site in the downtown area despite a number of moves. ***** Site of Methodist mission: original cemetery was located to north of existing building. EHB plaque; cornerstone 'McDougall Methodist Church 1909'. *** At the time of its construction in 1909, this fine brick church was known as McDougall Methodist Church in honour of Edmonton's first Methodist minister. After Canada's Methodist, Presbyterian, and Congregational Churches formed the United Church of Canada in 1925, the name was changed to its present form. McDougall United Church was designed by a well-known local architect, H.A. Magoon. Architecture that copied historical models was very popular in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. This church is designed in the Italianate Style, a revival of the architecture of Renaissance Italy. McDougall United Church cost $85,000 to build and could seat up to 2,500 people. It was the third church on this site. The original church was built of logs by Rev. George McDougall in 1873 and was the first building of note outside the walls of Fort Edmonton. The second, a wood frame church, was constructed in 1892 and demolished after the construction of the brick church. The first church has been moved to Fort Edmonton Park where it has been restored and is on view. *** The steady expansion of the congregation of the McDougall Methodist Church, as it was known before the First World War, reflected Edmonton's growth as it shared in the prosperity of the period from the turn of the century to 1913. The name commemorates the Church's founder, the Reverend George McDougall, who came west from Norway House, Manitoba, in 1862 to supervise Wesleyan missions to the Indians. In 1871 McDougall moved to Fort Edmonton from Victoria, eighty miles to the northeast, after an epidemic had swept the Victoria mission settlement. In that year he had a small timber church built by the Reverend Benjamin Jones, a travelling minister and carpenter. This Hudson's Bay frame (or Red River frame) building was the first to be erected outside the fort. The site was near the later intersection of 101 Street and Macdonald Drive, close to the site of the present church. A small log parsonage was built nearby. By the 1890s the congregation had outgrown the first church, which was moved across the street to the present site of the Journal Building. A larger frame church was built in 1892. Later that year the parsonage was destroyed by fire, to be replaced by a fine brick manse in 1893. Growth continued during the next two decades and again the congregation outgrew the building. The building committee's minute book from 1908 identifies Herbert Alton Magoon as architect for the design of a new church building and Allan Merrick Jeffers, the Provincial Architect and designer of the Legislative Building, as 'Consulting Architect'. In April 1909 the Trustees and Quarterly Board of the McDougall Methodist Church entered into a formal contract with Magoon. Construction began that year and continued into the next. The church was formally opened in November 1910. Herbert Alton Magoon (1863-1941) was born in Warwick, Quebec, and educated at the Brother's College in Athabasca and a business college in Sherbrooke, Quebec. He received his architectural training in Chicago and practised there and in Iowa. He met George Heath MacDonald (1883-1961) in 1900 while working as architect and contractor for the Dominion Iron and Steel Company in Sydney, Nova Scotia. They moved to Edmonton in 1904 and became partners following MacDonald's graduation from McGill's School of Architecture in 1911. The church became McDougall United Church in 1925, when Methodists and Congregationalists joined with a majority of Presbyterians to form the United Church of Canada. During a renovation of the building in 1954-55, the organ was built on the rear of the church. At the same time the two round-arched openings of the front entrance portico were replaced by a rectangular opening with a straight lintel, and concrete steps were built with Kelly Stanley as architect. McDougall United Church is located at the northeast corner of 101 Street and Macdonald Drive, directly opposite the Edmonton Journal building. The main facade faces west on 101 Street, with the side elevation facing south to Macdonald Drive and the Saskatchewan River valley. The twin towered main facade is familiar from both revived Gothic and Romanesque examples, and similar window tracery can be found in Romanesque Revival churches. Other details are clearly Classical in inspiration. Though some sources describe the style of the building as 'Romanesque', it is clearly intended to be an adaptation of the style of the early Italian Renaissance. A number of details characteristic of this style have already been identified. One confusing element may be the subdivision of the round-arched auditorium windows. The tracery of these windows may seem medieval at first glance, but is, in fact, derived from such works of the fifteenth century as Alberti's Palazzo Rucellai, Florence, and Rosselino's Palazzo Picolimin, Siena. The style seems best described as Renaissance Revival. Another Edmonton example of the style of the same date is Norwood School (1909), designed by Roland W. Lines. Plans drawn in 1954 by architect Kelly Stanley show alterations to the front entrance portico, with the two round-arched openings of original design replaced by a rectangular opening with a straight lintel and creation of the broad flight of concrete steps. The unidentified architect for the southeast addition was likely Kelly Stanley again. 1871 - The Reverend George McDougall moves to Fort Edmonton from Victoria and founds the first Protestant church in the Edmonton area. First church is built by the Reverend Benjamin Jones on a site near 101 Street and Mcdonald Drive. A parsonage is built nearby. 1892 - The congregation's population expands and a frame church is built to replace the early timber one. The first church is moved across the street to the site of the later Journal Building, and the new church is located on the northeast corner of 101 Street and Mcdonald Drive. The parsonage is destroyed by fire. 1893 - A brick manse replaces parsonage. 1908 - Herbert Alton Magoon is chosen as architect for new church, with Allan Merrick Jeffers as consulting architect. 1909 - Magoon and the Trustees and Quarterly Board of the church enter into a formal contract. Construction begins. 1910 - November. McDougall Methodist Church formally opens. 1925 - (June 10). The church becomes McDougall United Church when Methodists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians join, forming the United Church of Canada. 1954-1955 - Church is renovated and a two-storey addition is added to the rear of the church. The front entrance and stairs are rebuilt with Kelly Stanley as architect. *** Overlooking the River Valley on First Street is the location of the oldest church site in Edmonton. Rev. George McDougall constructed a Methodist Church here in 1873 to meet the needs of the growing Edmonton community. A second larger wood frame church was erected on this same site in 1892, with the present structure being constructed in 1909, again to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding population. Designed by H.A. Magoon, this red brick church was erected for $85,000. The church formally opened on December 11, 1910 with Rev. J. Hughson officiating in a church which held 1,800 in the main hall and 700 in the gallery - the largest in Edmonton. The interior was finished in oak with maple floors and contains a seventy-foot vaulted ceiling. Plans for constructing a new church were largely due to the efforts of Rev. E. Marshall who died before its completion. The organ was installed in 1912. The church was renovated in 1954 at a cost of $200,00 at which time a new addition was also constructed to the rear in a complementary but simpler style to accommodate two halls and offices. *** Built in 1909 by the Edmonton Methodist congregation, the McDougall Church is the oldest major inner-city church in Edmonton. It was named after Reverend George McDougall, the first Methodist missionary in Edmonton who ministered in this district from 1862 to his death in 1876. The church is of brick and steel construction on a stone foundation, and was constructed for a cost of $75,000. H.A. Magoon, who designed the Tegler Building, was the architect for the church, with James D. Blayney as contractor. In 1925, the McDougall Church became a unit of the United Church of Canada. It was renovated in 1954 at a cost of $200,000. Built and furnished by the City of Edmonton and handed over to the great war Veteran's Association. (see 56280) Some years ago the church congregation considered redevelopment of its property in conjunction with Alberta College, with which it is affiliated. This redevelopment would have seen a new church at ground level with one high-rise tower for the college and another tower for leasable office space. The current status of this proposal is unknown, but the site is strategically located between the AGT Building to the east and the proposed Royal Bank/Edmonton Journal redevelopment to the west. Any new high-rise development on the site would have the added feature of exellent views of the North Saskatchewan River Valley. If the past redevelopment proposal is no longer under consideration, it could easily be revived. Current allowable density of the site is 10.0:1 FAR. Any new demelopment should incorporate the present church building. Unused density from the church site could be transferred to the adjacent Alberta College site. *** Building Permit #732; Sept. 28/09; McDougall Church; architect is H.A. Magoon; builder Chas May; cost $70,000. Person: Rev. George McDougall - pioneer minister donated land for educational: religious purposes. -is third church on site 1873, 1892, 1909. Rev. E. Marshall - instrumental in construction, died before completion. EB Apr. 22/10 - cornerstone laid by Mrs. E.V. Hardisty, daughter of Geo. MacDougall. Sept. 30/09 - construction begun - basement built this year, superstructure in spring; seating for 1600 people - large center entrance, either tower leading to galleries. Dec. 11/10 - new church ready for services; Rev. J.E. Hughson officiating - new pipe organ to cost $8000; oak pens; maple floor. Apr. 21/10 J.D. Blayney contractor - ex building inspector for city. Jan. 16/26 work on church started under Rev. E.E. Marshall - built in honor of his memory; organ installed in 1912. EJ Oct. 17/31 - third church on site. NAIT report renovated 1954 for 200,000 - new addition to rear. * * * MCDOUGALL UNITED CHURCH (1925) Roots of Church Go Back 114 Years When Edmonton's oldest-functioning Protestant church opened its present building in 1910, it drew a capacity turnout and rave reviews. McDougall Methodist Church, the congregation's third building since missionary George McDougall opened a simple log church in 1873, was filled for all three services on December 4, 1910. The Edmonton Bulletin described in detail the oak pews in the sanctuary, the maple floors, the vaulted ceiling rising to a height of more than 22 metres (72 feet), and the encircling gallery supported by eight pillars. The church auditorium was the largest in Edmonton, 'and without doubt one of the finest in Western Canada,' the newspaper reported. The brick structure was to become McDougall United Church in 1925 after the merger of the Methodist, Congregationalist and Presbyterian churches. By the spring of 1911, the congregation had grown so big that oak pews were installed in the gallery, boosting seating capacity to 1,800. The church was considerably fancier and larger than its two predecessors, the first of which was a rough-hewn structure built largely by McDougall himself. Called the Wesleyan or Methodist Church, in 1875, it laid claim to being the first building constructed outside Fort Edmonton in 1873. This original church was moved to Fort Edmonton Park in 1978 after being used as a boys' dormitory for neighboring Alberta College and then as a museum. In 1892, an new frame church was built. It was demolished to make way for the present church. The cornerstone was laid by Mrs. E.V. Hardisty, McDougall's daughter. It was called McDougall Church after the much-loved missionary who had moved to Morley, west of Calgary, in 1875. Major renovations were made to the church in the mid-1950s, but the sanctuary remains virtually the same as in 1910. During the renovations, the pulpit was extended slightly and enclosed. The original choir seats were replaced with wooden ones. An addition was also built and it contains the church offices and meeting rooms. A Karn Warren pipe organ, in use since 1912, was rebuilt. It was replaced in 1976 by an electronic organ. On the ground floor of the older part is the Pioneer Chapel which contains the oak Communion table and pulpit, which have been in use since 1910. There may be more drastic changes in store for the church. The congregation has discussed possible redevelpment of the site, but is adamant that the church sanctuary remain, in recognition of its historical significance for the city and for the United Church. Church membership reached a high of 2,000 in the early 1950s, but a proliferation of neighborhood churches has seen it drop to about 650. Still, the numbers are stable and the congregation is faithful, coming from all parts of the city.

Internal

Designation Status:	Designation Date:
Provincial Historic Resource Municipal Historic Resource	2015/06/22 2016/03/01

Register:

Links

Internet:
Alberta Register of Historic Places: