Formal Recognition Type

Municipal Heritage Building Structure or Land

Heritage Value

The Methodist Schoolhouse was designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Heart’s Content due to its aesthetic, historic, and cultural value.

The Methodist Schoolhouse has aesthetic value as its design and construction provide an example of how many schools were built during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in outport communities. This simple, rectangular-shaped, one-room design – featuring a hipped roof, exposed beams under the eaves, and multiple window openings – is an example of a trend in school construction that lasted well into the twentieth century.

The Methodist Schoolhouse has historic and cultural value for its continued use as a community space. In 1889 the Methodist church in Heart’s Content was enlarged and a basement space added. Sometime between then and 1892 (when reference can be found to the “Heart’s Content Methodist School Board”), the congregation established a school in the basement of their church. The 1898 Report of the Public Schools of Newfoundland Under Methodist Boards contained a summary of activities at the “Heart’s Content Superior School,” which had 48 students registered. Various documents after that date name members of the congregation who served on the Board, as well as the names of young, single women who were employed as teachers. Reports show that the Heart’s Content Methodist School did not keep its Superior School rating and that enrollment dropped to just above 30 students annually.

The 1915 Report says that the room where school was held was “comfortable,” while the Report from 1916 notes that “the room and equipment are out of date.” By 1917, $1,500 had been set aside for the construction of a new Methodist school in Heart‘s Content. The Annual Report of the Department of Education, Newfoundland 1922-23, under the section “Report of the Public Schools of Newfoundland Under Methodist Boards,” notes that $500 was appropriated from the Methodist Board for Heart’s Content school (denominational boards received grants from the Newfoundland government for building and improving schools under their jurisdictions). Above the list of communities in receipt of funds that year, the Report notes that “School buildings were either erected, in course of erection or repaired,” but does not specify which works were undertaken in individual communities. It is possible then that the school was built between 1917 and 1923. The school is not mentioned in official records after that date, as the method of reporting had been streamlined with all denominations submitting briefer reports to the Department of Education.

The Heart’s Content Methodist school closed in 1942. That same year Masonic Lodge #1275 began leasing the building. On Wednesday, July 13, 1955, the lodge was visited by Grand Master of the Masonic Order the Honourable Lord Alexander Godfrey Macdonald MBE, 7th Baron Macdonald, as well as two other high-ranking members of the Order; Deputy Grand Master the Honourable Archibald William Alexander Montgomerie, 17th Earl of Eglinton; and the Honourable Grand Secretary Dr. Alexander F. Buchan. In 1969, the Loyal Orange Lodge traded buildings with the Masonic Lodge after finding the space they were using to be too large. The Loyal Orange Lodge retained the property until they ceased operations in Heart’s Content in 1997, after which the building was acquired by the Mizzen Heritage Society. In July of 2007 the Mizzen Heritage Society re-opened the Methodist Schoolhouse building as a museum and interpretation centre.

Source: Town of Heart’s Content Regular Council Meeting, Motion #71-21, July 22, 2021.

Character Defining Elements

All those elements that encompass the age, style, and original construction of the building, including:
-number of storeys;
-size, style and placement of porch on left façade;
-hipped roof;
-style, size and placement of chimney;
-exposed roof beams on large, overhanging eaves;
-narrow wooden clapboard;
-wooden corner boards;
-size, style, trim and placement of wooden 4/4 windows;
-size, style, and placement of wooden 8-paned storm windows;
-size, style, trim and placement of exterior doors;
-dimension, location and orientation of building;
-land surrounding the building, including remains of stone walls and traditional style paling fence.

Community

Heart's Content

Municipality

Town of Heart's Content

Civic Address

2-6 Alex Rowe’s Lane

Construction (circa)

1917 - 1923

Builder

Heart's Content Methodist School Board

Style

Rectangular long facade