Formal Recognition Type

Registered Heritage Structure

Heritage Value

Heyfield Memorial United Church was designated a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2011 because of its historic and aesthetic value. Heyfield Memorial United Church has historic value for its connection with the establishment of Methodism in Heart’s Content and for its connection to the Anglo-American Telegraph Company. Previous to the establishment of a cable station in Heart’s Content, the community had a small number of Methodists who met in their own homes. The Anglo American Telegraph Company was established in Heart’s Content following the landing of a transatlantic telegraph cable there in 1866. Several of the Company’s employees were Methodists and by 1874 more than 20 Wesleyans were recorded as living in Heart’s Content. Samuel Seymour Stentaford, a young man from Brigus, was a telegrapher with the company and along with other company employees and Methodist residents he worked to form a Methodist congregation in Heart’s Content. In 1877 the Methodist mission at Heart’s Content got its first clergyman, Reverend Joseph Lister, during whose one year term the church building was planned and started under the supervision of builder Robert Horwood of Carbonear. Construction was completed the following year during the ministry of Reverend Jesse Heyfield. The church was dedicated on November 12, 1878 by Heyfield and he served at Heart’s Content until 1879, and again from 1908 until his death in December 1910. In 1975, upon the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the United Church of Canada, the Heart’s Content congregation named the church Heyfield Memorial in his memory. Heyfield Memorial United Church has aesthetic value given its Gothic Revival style of architecture. Such features include the steeply-pitched roof, tower and steeple, and pointed-arch windows with textured and mauve-coloured stained glass. Heyfield Memorial United Church has further aesthetic value because of its visibility and prominent oceanside location along the main road through Heart’s Content. The church evokes the turn of the twentieth century period and is an important landmark on the town’s landscape. Source: Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador property file “Heart’s Content – Heyfield Memorial United Church – FPT 4624”

Character Defining Elements

All those elements which represent the historic and aesthetic value of Heyfield Memorial United Church, including: -height of structure (including tower with spire); -steeply pitched gable roof tapering to hipped roof on rear facade; -original size and style of finials on roof ridge and eaves; -original narrow wooden clapboard (including clapboard on the bias on front gable); -original corner boards; -pointed arch wooden windows size, style, trim and placement (including textured and mauve-coloured stained glass); -original size, style, trim and placement of exterior doors; -size, style, and placement of tower with spire on right façade, and; -dimension, location and orientation of building.

Community

Heart's Content

Municipality

Town of Heart's Content

Civic Address

Main Street

Construction (circa)

19700101 - 19700101

Builder

Robert Horwood

Style

Rectangular Short Façade