I find it amusing that our idyllic country views are used in tourism promotions and literature but when it comes to saving and preserving those views and buildings there's little help. The view on this map today would be a hilly road with trees - the church was moved and the steeple removed.
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Here are a few photos I took of this beautiful little church at the corner of the New Glasgow Road and the Bungay Road in Wheatley River before it was decommissioned and moved in the mid-2000s.
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![Victoria United Church]()
The beautiful Wheatley River United Church before removal from the site.
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The church had beautiful detailing especially the round windows in the tower.
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The church was decomissioned around 2004 and sold to the neighbour on the other corner and moved a few hundred feet to the other side of the neighbours hedge. At the time the PEI United Church Council required that any decommissioned United Church be sold or demolished. If sold the steeple had to be removed so it wouldn't be confused as being a church building. At the time I was acting Chairman of the PEI Heritage Places Advisory Board and had a letter sent to the PEI United Church Council asking they reconsider this policy - our request was dismissed. It was a bad decision for Island architecture.
Below/Above: The vacant site where the church once stood.
Below Photos: the relocated church without its steeple.
A few who purchased decommisioned churches didn't follow through with this steeple removal policy, such as the Victoria-by-the-Sea United Church, now in private hands. I assume the PEI United Church Council decided not to enforce its' policy.
Above: former Victoria United Church
cf. http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/image-image.aspx?id=5682#i1