“Is not Main Street almost all right?” asked Robert Venturi in his 1966 book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. With his wife and partner Denise Scott Brown (who was scandalously overlooked when Robert was awarded the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s most prestigious honor, on the basis of their joint work), he went on to write Learning from Las Vegas (1972), which championed the vernacular architecture of America.
The working-class Calgary suburb of Renfrew was developed in the 1940s and ’50s. By Alberta standards it is an old neighborhood, with many trees. Most of the original houses were modest dwellings of no more than 900 sq. ft., but the lot sizes were generous. There were three basic designs, which are repeated throughout the area. Nowadays Renfrew is considered inner city (downtown is an 8 minute drive) and is rapidly gentrifying.
The Renfrew United Church, at the intersection of Radnor Avenue and Remington Road NE, was a fine example of vernacular mid-century modern.
I doubt the building ever saw an architect, but it served the community well for over sixty years. When we arrived in 2016 it still hosted not only Sunday services but charity sales, childrens’ parties, and other community events.
I used to pass by walking my standard poodles, Luci then Alice, and I photographed the building in all seasons and weathers. I got talking with the pastor. He told me his congregation was down to less than twenty souls, mostly pensioners, and he didn’t expect to be in a job for long.
The church was neglected and fast approaching dereliction, but the peeling paint and rambling hollyhocks only added to its ramshackle visual charms.
The dogs liked it too. This was Alice as a puppy, entering the mirror phase.
As 2021 wore on I realized that the church was slowly becoming deserted. Likely COVID-19 struck the final blow. I didn’t see the pastor cutting the grass any more. One day in July, a fence went up. Alice wasn’t happy.
After standing empty for over a year, the church was finally demolished on 27 September 2022. The bulldozer made short shrift of the main building, but it took another three days to bring down the cross. Now the community is fighting against the erection of a six-story condo on the site.
I never saw the pastor again. And I miss the church.
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