Oxford Baptist Church

Title

Oxford Baptist Church

Church Name

Oxford Baptist Church

Church Association

Cumberland Association

Province

Nova Scotia

County

Cumberland County

Address

89 Jackson Street, Oxford, NS

Status

Active

Date

Built 1898

Historical Information

The congregation of the Oxford Baptist Church has its roots in the story of Little River Baptist Church, the mother church of this congregation, which was started in 1847. Members of the Little River congregation went on to form the Oxford Baptist Church congregation. To this day (2022) the congregations continue to be in a pastorate, share a minister, and supply minister services to Wallace River.

A small body of individuals gathering together can be traced as early as 1870 in Oxford. In 1876, a number of members from Little River requested the church to move their membership to Oxford. Oxford Baptist Church was formally constituted and accepted into membership into the Eastern Baptist Association. While early services were held in the old Methodist Church, now on Ellis Street, before long, during E. C. Corey's ministry, a church building was constructed down on Lower Main Street, where the Nazarene church presently meets.

During the year 1896, the Baptists were finding their meeting house inadequate to accommodate the needs of the congregation, as the membership was growing rapidly. The present church building was constructed in 1898. This was heated with a wood furnace and lighted by an acetylene system which was converted to electricity in 1919. The church was dedicated on January 1, 1899, with much pomp and ceremony. In 1956, the church bell was installed in the church belfry. During the following year, a modern kitchen was built as part of an extension.

The Oxford Baptist church is typical in terms of style for its time. The church marks a transitional phase in Baptist church architecture around the turn of the twentieth century from a symmetrical design, usually in the Gothic Revival style, with a centrally placed steeple on the gable end, to an asymmetrical design, with the steeple place usually on the side of the structure. Many of these churches with an asymmetrical design are also based on a modified “Akron Plan,” so named because it was first used in Akron, Ohio in 1867. This design abandoned the traditional long, straight, and narrow sanctuary with a central aisle in favor of a shallower and wider sanctuary with a sloping floor and pews which sweep in a half-circle and are broken into three sections. The purpose of these features was to enable everyone to see and hear clearly in a time when sound and projection systems were nonexistent. Also typical of the Akron style are sliding walls which allow the gallery to be closed off when not needed, and doors on the Sunday School rooms which completely open the front wall of the classroom. In a true Akron style Sunday School, the classes would open these doors completely so that the superintendent would be in full view to address the whole Sunday school. Doors were then closed for the class time. The sliding door could also be opened to enlarge the seating capacity of the sanctuary.

One feature that is unique to this structure is the cylindrical tower that contains the bell. This architectural design is not noticed on many other churches in Atlantic Canada. Members of the Oxford congregation state that members from the Baptist Church in Sackville, New Brunswick, liked this design so much, that the got the architectural drawings from the architect and constructed an exact replica to house their congregation.

Information provided by the church.

Files

oxfordbaptistchurch.jpg

Citation

“Oxford Baptist Church,” Atlantic Baptist Built Heritage Project , accessed March 29, 2024, https://atlanticbaptistheritage.omeka.net/items/show/339.

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