Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel

The twin belfries of the 1909 church, which today houses the Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel.

Cyr

June 15 to August 15: Sunday through Friday, 12 - 4 p.m.

Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel
P.O. Box 150
Lille, Maine 04746-0150

This church is the most intact and architecturally significant of the surviving historic wooden Catholic churches in the Saint John River Valley. The church was built in 1909 by Edmundston contractor Léonide Gagné from plans by architect Theo Daust. The twin Baroque-style belfries of the church house two archangels blowing trumpets sculpted in 1908 by Quebec sculptor Louis Jobin.

Official Catholic religious services ceased in 1978, and in 1984 the church was acquired by the L’Association culturelle et historique du Mont‑Carmel, a non profit organization, which is restoring the church building as a museum and a performing arts center.

The National Register nomination describes the church as a structure reflecting a high style form which has been expressed in a vernacular manner. The reference to high style form includes its nave with adjacent aisles, towering clerestory, elaborately fenestrated facade, and twin Baroque‑style belfries. The vernacular aspects of the church include its wooden structure, clapboard exterior, simple wooden moldings, and hand‑marbleized interior columns.

Interpretive efforts utilize a large collection of religious artifacts, and the building itself, to relate the influence of religion in the valley.