St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church

Photo by Alan L Brown - August 30, 2004

Plaque Location

The Municipality of Chatham-Kent
On the north side of County Road 36 just west of Pump Road, street number 5425

Plaque Text

The religious centre for a thriving Franco-Ontario community, this substantial brick structure was built to serve La Paroisse de St. Pierre sur la Tranche, the second oldest Roman Catholic parish in southwestern Ontario, established in 1802. It was erected in 1896, with volunteer labour provided by parishioners, and replaced an earlier building destroyed by fire the year before. Prominently situated in a rural setting overlooking the Thames River, St. Peter's is distinguished by its tall, square tower, spiral steeple and decorative brickwork. The church's most notable features however are the eighteen ecclesiastical paintings that grace the interior. Commissioned in 1920, they are the work of Marie Joseph Georges Delfosse (1869-1939), a French-Canadian artist noted for his religious and historical tableaux.