Fort Vancouver Historic Structures Report

Construction details

Virtually nothing specific is known of the physical structure of the Old Catholic Church beyond what can be determined from the Emmons and Vavasour ground plans. No remains have yet been uncovered during archeological explorations, and the building cannot be discerned in any known view of Fort Vancouver.

All versions of the Vavasour plan seem to agree that the Chapel was about thirty feet wide. On the two original versions (Plates VI and VII, vol. I) the length appears to be between sixty and sixty-two feet. On the traced copy (Plate VIII, vol. I), however, the length scales out to approximately sixty-five to sixty-eight feet. Probably sixty feet was the approximate length.

Because the building was originally a storehouse, it can safely be assumed that it was of heavy Canadian-style construction. Because of its early erection date, the timbers undoubtedly were hand hewn. The roof almost certainly was gabled, with the ridge running north and south. The roof very likely was covered with vertical boards. In short, inside and out, it almost surely was similar to the other warehouses already described, except that it may have consisted of only one story and a garret.

According to the Emmons ground plan of 1841 the chapel had only one door, located in the west wall about one-third of the wall length from the north end of the building. As with the other stores, there probably were several small, shuttered windows on each wall.

The floors were undoubtedly heavy, rough planks. The inside walls, however, may have been lined with vertical deals either originally or when the structure was converted to a chapel.