Saint John, Innisville — Deanery of the Southwest

The former Saint John’s Church, Innisville looks almost timeless in its rural setting, at least when viewed in daytime. This photograph from fifty years ago was taken before the cross atop the steeple became highlighted in neon, virtually assuring that this house of worship had a presence for travellers passing by on Highway 7 at night.

Saint John’s Church had not always been located here, as the previous frame and log worship structures had been located in the village of Innisville proper. In the generation leading up to the building of this house of worship on this site in 1911, we forget that there were tensions between farmers and prominent parish members resident in many villages across the diocese: mainly because so many of the former out on their farms in the rural concessions were in debt—sometimes irretrievably so—to the latter for their services as doctors, merchants and tradesmen.

So, it was almost inevitable that when the time came to build a large new stone church to replace the small, plain frame building that had been the site of Anglican devotions at Innisville since the 1850s, there was a tussle between building the new church in the village proper or out on a larger rural site in the nearby countryside.

Saint John’s picturesque site here tells us that the farmers won that battle, but the real winner was a tried and true design produced by Ottawa architect John W.H. Watts. Watts had a number of regional church designs to his credit. They included Saint Margaret’s, Janeville [Vanier] (1887); the first Saint Matthias’s Church, Ottawa (1890), Saint Paul’s, Renfrew (1900); Saint James’s, Port Elmsley (1900); Saint Augustine’s, Galetta (1902); Saint Mary’s, North March (1908), Saint Thomas’s, Woodlawn (1915), and Christ Church, Ashton (1915).

Watts was an English-born architect and a member of the Royal Academy who by the early 1880s had immigrated to Canada and was living in Ottawa. From 1882 to 1896, he was appointed Curator of the fledgling National Gallery of Canada. He is reputed to have persuaded the Gallery to make its first purchases of Canadian works of art. His main work was as Assistant Chief Government Architect, ostensibly working for Thomas Seaton Scott who back in the 1860s had designed a handful of Anglican churches including Trinity, Cornwall.

Watts’s Anglican churches were all private commissions, designs carried out after hours apart from his duties at work for the federal government. His early designs differed from one another, but by the turn of the century his designs featured three signature features. The first of these was a curving chancel ceiling with curving ribs.  The second was a rounded apse.  Watt’s third signature design was a landmark square tower culminating in a belfry surrounded by four pylons crowned by a tall spire. Watt’s signature style became so obvious that the design of the churches at Innisville and Ashton is exactly the same except for the placement of the tower.

There were differences between even these two churches. Saint John’s, despite being on a rise, was five steps up from the ground, whereas Ashton was only one step up.  Saint John’s had a shallow eyebrow gable on the roof, where Ashton did not.  Finally, Ashton had pointed windows in its chancel, whereas Innsiville featured square windows with pointed traceries.  Decreasing attendance led to Saint John’s, Innisville being deconsecrated in August 2024.

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