At a time when construction lumber moved across Salt Spring by ox-team, it took three years and the combined efforts of many industrious islanders to build St. Mark’s Church in the 1890s.
And more than a century later, it was very nearly a three-year process to get the property ready to sell after being deconsecrated in 2022, according to Anglican Parish of Salt Spring Island building renewal lay leader Walter Stewart.
But it was just a matter of days –– for the sake of a tidy narrative, we’ll call it three –– before word spread across the island and beyond that the historic structure at 961 North End Rd. was available for sale for $599,000.
“When we listed it, we had no idea whether it would sell in a couple of weeks or a couple of years,” said Stewart. “Someone has to have an interest in the historic property and be ready to make an investment. But you’re never going to have immediate neighbours; you’re always going to have a bucolic outlook!”
Tucked in an island of rural zoning surrounded by a sea of Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) properties, the three-quarter-acre parcel where St. Mark’s sits was originally carved from a 90-acre farm owned by early island settler Henry Stevens, donated for the church in 1889. Construction was done by Samuel Beddis and his eldest son Charles, a few days at a time and in between farm work, with the help of residents from in and around the settlement at Central –– including “Anglicans, Methodists and Presbyterians,” according to a church history.
St. Mark’s Church was consecrated in the spring of 1892 by the Right Reverend George Hills, the first bishop of the then-new Anglican Diocese of British Columbia, shortly before he resigned that summer owing to ill health. Hills had been appointed to the diocese by Queen Victoria in 1859.
Stewart noted that while it had been some time since the church was officially deconsecrated –– after 130 years of service –– he emphasized there had been no delays stemming from the diocese, which owns the property as is typically the case within the Anglican Church. The obstacles, likely relatable to many islanders, were a little more mundane.
“A difficulty was that we discovered the survey lines were very different from what had appeared,” chuckled Stewart. “One more case of flaws in 19th-century surveying.”
Indeed, Stewart said, it turned out the property didn’t have its own driveway within its boundaries, so one needed to be constructed for future owners’ access before putting the church on the market. And, he added, an updated survey revealed that North End Road itself runs through a little bit of the parcel.
Jokes about a parish fundraiser involving charging tolls aside, Stewart said church officials expected a significant portion, if not all of the proceeds from the sale will be invested in the All Saints by-the-Sea church building on Park Drive in Ganges. That building is 30 years old, he said, “and there are things that just don’t last much more than that” –– pointing to items like double-glazed windows or plumbing fixtures.
“It’s important to recognize that while All Saints is extremely important to us as Anglicans on the island, it also is used very heavily by community groups,” said Stewart. “So, we need to keep it up, so it remains that kind of resource for the community.”