The Town of Halton Hills is exploring designating St. Paul’s Anglican Church and the accompanying Parish Hall in Norval as heritage properties.
The two buildings - at 12 and 16 Adamson St. respectively - are local landmarks. Located at a gateway of Norval, the gleaming white church has been greeting locals and visitors for almost two centuries.
Though not as old, the Parish Hall has been the site of celebrations and community events for almost 100 years.
"In my opinion, the more (heritage) designations, the more interest you build for visitors to our community," People's Warden at St. Paul's Anglican Church Kathy Gastle said. "Anything that we can do to preserve our existing heritage in perpetuity, in my opinion, is the way to continue to promote the hamlet as a destination."
“It (the designation) is very long overdue,” said Carolyn Martin, President of the Norval Studios and Art Gallery, which set up shop in the Parish Hall earlier this year. “It’s a beautiful little church; it’s small and intimate. The churches were the heart of the community back when they were built.”
The Anglican church itself dates back to the 1840s. A vestry - a local parish government - met on April 14, 1845 and birthed the church in a resolution stating “that the church, now in the course of erection, be named St. Paul’s Church.”
The Town’s report evaluating the property's heritage characteristics points to the church as an example of a “rural interpretation of the Gothic revival” style.
The Town’s assessment acknowledges that the Parish Hall, built in 1927, is modest in design, but still finds heritage value as an early 20th-century, purpose-built structure. It also summarizes the property’s association with Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery.
The literary titan moved to the hamlet in 1926 and is known to have said, “I love Norval as I have never loved any place save Cavendish. It is as if I had known it all my life.”
Her husband, Reverend Ewan Macdonald, took over the local Presbyterian churches in Norval and Glen Williams. During her seven years in the village, Montgomery put on plays at the Parish Hall.
The designation will be on the Dec. 11 council agenda.
