$250,000 for One of North America’s Largest Wooden Churches, With $10 Million in Repairs: Église Sainte-Marie Goes on Sale

• Église Sainte-Marie in Church Point, Nova Scotia, was listed for $250,000
• The 1905 wooden church covers 15,000 square feet
• Repairs are estimated at $10 million
• The province said it has no money to buy and restore it

One of North America’s largest wooden churches has been deconsecrated and put up for sale in Nova Scotia, Global News reported in February 2024. The Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth listed Église Sainte-Marie in Church Point for $250,000.

Built in 1905, the church covers 15,000 square feet and was designated a Nova Scotia registered heritage property in 2001 for its architecture and its importance to Acadian culture. Its last Mass was held on Christmas Eve 2019. After it was deconsecrated in November 2023, the furnace stopped working, and leaks in the ceiling are getting worse. Repairs are estimated at $10 million, and the congregation has shrunk sharply.

Local people are distressed. “The day that the wrecking ball would show up would be one of the saddest days of my life,” said Pierre Comeau, former head of the Société Édifice Sainte-Marie. “The hope gets dimmer as time goes by,” he added. André Valotaire, caretaker for 25 years, said: “It’s an icon, people come to Clare, see it from miles around.” Patricia Kell, executive director of the National Trust, said: “Each of these buildings has a story to tell about how we came to be.”

Provincial minister Allan MacMaster confirmed that the province does not have the money to buy and restore the building.

Sainte-Marie shows the gap between a building’s cultural value and its market price. A $250,000 asking price looks tiny, but any buyer inherits a $10 million repair bill. For Jamaica’s great heritage churches, many of them wooden or stone buildings with small congregations, the lesson is to plan repair funding and possible new uses long before a building is closed and starts to decay. Once the heating goes off, the costs climb quickly.

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