Saint Petka Serbian Orthodox Church

Saint Petka Serbian Orthodox Church (Serbian: Црква Свете Петке), built in 1962 as the Maidstone Central Public School, is located in Lakeshore, Ontario, Canada.[1]The school was one of the many buildings constructed across Canada in the early and mid-1960s in commemoration of the upcoming Centennial.[2]

Architecture

The 1962 building was designed and built in Post Modern design by architect John Peter Thomson (1885-1973)[3]who lived in Windsor where he commuted every day to Detroit to work with George D. Mason and the legendary Albert Kahn. It was with Kahn that Thomson was given responsibility for the design of several skyscrapers and assembly plant buildings in the Detroit area. He also took on work under his own name and opened his own firm in Windsor in 1936.[4]

Saint Petka Parish is unique for its orientation to landscape, horizontal, clean lines, flat facade, with a main entrance in glass and decorative ceramic tiles. Also, its interior mirror these attributes. The building is of architectural value because it is the best example in the County of Essex of Modern design, popularly known as International style. Following modernist design principles, Thomson's building features open space planning with harmony and balance.

History

On 11 April 2014, the Greater Essex County School Board sold the school and 8.21-acre lot to the Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Canada. The Serbian Orthodox Community of Lakeshore (Ontario, Canada) was initially founded by His Grace Georgije Đokić in November 2013. The mission is to unite the Serbian Orthodox Community of Lakeshore in preserving and celebrating its faith, the Serbian traditions, culture and ethos. The school building now altered inside serves as a parish home and a community hub to a hundred Serbian families in Tecumseh and Lakeshore, Ontario. Most of them arrived after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, beginning in the early 1990s.[5]

See also

Sources

References
  1. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/maidstone-school-targeted-for-closure-1.866801
  2. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/centennial-buildings-50th-anniversary-1.3654283
  3. "Thomson, John Peter | Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada". dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org.
  4. "J.P. Thomson Architects Ltd". JP Thomson Architects. May 28, 2013.
  5. "Saint Petka Church (Lakeshore, Ontario) - OrthodoxWiki". orthodoxwiki.org.

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