The Nisbet Church and Blockhouse once stood in what is now the P.A. downtown in the late 1800s and were then relocated to Kinsmen Park before their sorry state forced their removal last year. (FIle photo/paNOW Staff)

By Glenn Hicks

relocating history

Seeking a third life for the Nisbet Church and Blockhouse

Sep 18, 2019 | 5:43 PM

The Prince Albert Historical Society is asking for the public’s help in putting two iconic buildings back on the riverbank, close to their original home.

The newly-launched fundraising project to reconstruct the dilapidated and near-150-year-old Nisbet Church and Blockhouse, will require $200,000. A sizeable amount, $25,000, has already been received through a bequest from the estate of long-time society board member Phil West.

Ever since the badly decaying hewn wooden structures were removed from their second home at Kinsmen Park last year – where they had been since 1933 – the society has been eager for them to return to a location much closer to their riverside roots. The hope is they’ll go to the west of the museum building in the area where the recently removed totem pole stood. This project was initiated before that landmark came down for safety reasons.

“The log church was built by Rev. James Nisbet in 1872 and was also a school,” society President Connie Gerwing told paNOW. “The Blockhouse was originally a stable for P.A.’s first lawyer and then, during the 1885 conflict with the Métis, it housed military equipment.”

Gerwing said the approximate original location for the church was where the U of S campus is on Central Avenue while the blockhouse was close to the Gateway Mall. The funds raised will go towards concrete flooring, new roofs and some new logs so the structures can be operated through the summer. Small weddings could be held in the church as well.

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“We’ll have Nisbet and religious artifacts in the church, and items related to early Prince Albert,” Gerwing explained. ”The blockhouse will have objects related to the stable and will also highlight the building’s gun ports that were cut into it for the 1885 conflict and an invasion that never came.”

Nisbet chose the area for his Presbyterian Mission in 1866 after consulting with local Indigenous people and was accompanied by Métis missionaries George Flett and John McKay.

Sherry McLennan, the director for Western Region 2 with the Métis Nation, and one of the society’s knowledge-keepers, said it was important to retain and preserve these key parts of our shared history.

“Just thinking about how it was back then for great Métis names like Flett and McKay and their families, and imagining how they worked to build that,” she said. “Their blood, sweat and tears in constructing those buildings, we need to keep that history for our future generations.”

McLennan added the riverbank site would attract visitors and bring extra income to the city.

“We want to make sure we can put that out there to all the people who want to learn, research and visit,” she said.

The P.A. Historical Society has set up a GoFundMe page and are also taking donations at its downtown location.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow