Souris Methodist Church, shown here, was a fine example of Carpenter Gothic architecture. The building is still standing, but it lost its architec- tural character after conversion to commercial purposes.

dale offered the first mass in it in January, 1839. Ten years later it and a new parochial house were destroyed by fire. Before the year was out a new church stood on this site, with a steeple 100 feet high. The parochial house wasn't replaced until 1862.

By 1901 the 1849 church had become too small, and under the guidance of the Reverend Donald Francis MacDonald, it was moved from its site and replaced by a new building constructed of lsland sandstone. Its architect, William Critchlow Harris, Jr., used the adapta- tion of French Gothic Style he had developed six years earlier in the design of St. Paul’s Church, Charlottetown, for the new building, which he described as “splendidly situated on a hill overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence.” Its finest feature was a round tower surmounted by a cor- ona of gabled niches and an eight-sided spire. In its in- terior plan it was very much like Harrls’s 1911 church at St. Teresa about 25 miles south west of Souris. Unfor-

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Rebuilding St. Alban‘s Church in 1980.

tunately it was gutted by fire in 1928 and rebuilt within the still standing walls to a less ambitious design.

An important contribution to the religious and educational life of Souris was made over many years by the Congregation of Notre Dame. St. Mary’s Convent, built in 1881, stood near the church, and was enlarged by the addition of an annex in 1919. Both buildings are gone now, and the school taught by the sisters is only a memory. However, there are still nuns in Souris, as- sisting the parish priest of St. Mary's in his pastoral work.

The Anglican Church of St. Alban the Martyr was named after a church built in Mount Stewart in the 18603 which had failed when the Church was unable to provide an ongoing pastoral ministry in the area. Land for the Souris churchyard was given by the heirs of John Knight “knowing the pious intention of their ancestor” (ac- cording to an entry in the new church’s services register). The Reverend E.T. Woollard started the mission with ser- vices held in Mrs. Knight’s home but the lack of a resident minister and other difficulties led to first the closure and then the removal of the church building. In 1947 the site of the church was sold and a house built on it. In 1980 the church was rebuilt from panels made in the basement of Holy Trinity Church, Georgetown, to plans drawn by Coles Associates of Charlottetown from sketches sup- plied by Archdeacon Robert Tuck.

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