Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 26

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Lake Bennett, British Columbia

by Margaret Carter

Abstract

Standing as it was, alone in a wilderness area, this church was an object of great curiosity to passengers who travelled nearby on the White Pass and Yukon Railway. Legends grew up to explain its existence — legends which always recorded that the church was never completed and never used. After the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada declared this building to be of national significance in 1967, Parks Canada began to collect some background material on it. The author completed a short report on the church in 1970 which proved that it was one of a series of missions operated by the Presbyterian Church at Bennett and was not only completed but also actively used as a religious structure. Since that time, Parks Canada has gathered more information on the building both in the course of its Yukon work and through the efforts of Mr. J.M. Sinclair, son of the church's first minister. Mr. Sinclair kindly offered his father's papers for reference, and these have proven an invaluable source of information on the building's construction.

Submitted for publication 1978 by Margaret Carter, Head, Architectural History, Canadian Inventory of Historic Building, Parks Canada, Ottawa.