St. George, Portage-du-Fort — Deanery of West Quebec

At first, we almost don’t see the arch of wheat entwined with fruits and vegetables to celebrate a harvest thanksgiving put up at the front of the aisle in Saint George’s Church, Portage-du-Fort. We don’t see it because we are bowled over by the abundance of good taste evident in this church facing out over the upper Ottawa River. How do we explain such good taste in the mid-1850s at this remote location?

In 1843, the Reverend F.S. Neve of Clarendon began visiting the village of Portage-du-Fort and holding Anglican services. In 1856, the site for a church was donated by a village merchant, George W. Usborne, and building began on the first day of May 1856. A cornerstone was laid on 19 May 1856 by the Rev. J.S. Sykes, Rector of Clarendon. The church was named Saint George’s, and the first Divine Service within its walls was held before the year was out.

Developments came fast and furious in 1856. Portage-du-Fort was established that year as a new mission separate from the Mission of Clarendon, with outstations at Havelock (Bryson), Calumet Island, Fort Coulonge, Black River, and Horton & Renfrew. The Rev. John Gribble was appointed the first Incumbent in 1856, reputedly walking between the outstations. Just two years later, on 1 August 1858, Saint George’s was consecrated by Bishop Fulford of Montreal.

Portage-du-Fort when Saint George’s was built, we must needs remind ourselves, was part of the Diocese of Montreal. The new church was built before Thomas Fuller came to design the Centre Block of Parliament in Ottawa and a year before architect Frank Wills died at Montreal. It may well be that Saint George’s Church, bearing little resemblance to churches designed by Fuller around the new capital, was in fact designed by Frank Wills of Montreal.

There was one major player in the swift emergence of Portage-du-Fort as an Anglican centre. And that singular individual was village storekeeper George Usborne who is reputed to have put up most of the money to build Saint George’s. It was no coincidence that he shared the same given name as the church’s patron saint. Storekeepers, by definition, were prosperous members of society in pre-confederation Canada. We sense that Usborne took delight in visual good taste, as he was reported introducing two Christmas trees at Portage-du-Fort as early as 1842. Given George Usborne’s interest, it surely is no coincidence that the new church was named Saint George’s, and that he and his wife were buried in the crypt, a rare example of intramural burial in the Diocese of Ottawa.

What is striking in this photograph is that the front wall inside Saint George’s appears to feature cut building stone of two contrasting colours. We also note the finely cut arch of the chancel window, and what appears to be a chancel arch featuring a column and capital.

The chancel was a step up from the main body of the church. The sanctuary is defined by being up a step from the chancel and by the finely detailed communion rail featuring an arcade of pointed arches carved by a skilled cabinetmaker.  The altar is the focal centre of this house of worship.  If the overall design and the pointed arches indicate some familiarity with churches promoted by the Cambridge Camden Society, the large boards containing the commandments and creed tell of a time before most members of the congregation came to possess prayer books.

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