Here’s a church and there’s the steeple
A long time ago, thanks to the wonderful program Shur-Gain Talent Time, hosted by the late Loman MacAulay, I learned a short hand-rhyme that went “Here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the door and see all the people”.
This morning, the rhyme came back as my bus passed by the former St-Vincent-de-Paul parish church located at the top of the Cote d’Abraham.
You know how some projects seem to take a long time to get started. This one has been in the incubator for close to twenty years now. The parish was disaffected some time shortly after my arrival in Quebec City, and the complex remained closed to all but the local squatter community for years. Several winters back, the west section containing offices and classrooms was removed, except for the front wall, to make way for a parking lot that seemed to need a guy in a car to attend it. No obvious road or sign, just a guy.
Earlier this week, the big cranes were placed, and the steeple is now down on the ground. The asbestos hazard signs are no longer in sight, and the back half was “eaten’ during the day. You can see inside the church nave, (until next week, I imagine, when all but the facade should have been carted away). Seems the downtown core will have another five-star hotel, before I need to rent another room…
Still, seeing the interior of the church in this way is odd. As parish populations evaporate in a holy haze, the buildings are doomed to other roles, unless they meet the government standards as historical landmarks. When Mark Twain described Montreal as a ‘city where you couldn’t throw a brick without breaking a church window’, I believe he really meant Quebec City. We’ve got lots of holy real estate that is just waiting for a new lease on life.
For the curious; yes, the steeple was just a very large wooden box with a pointy end.
