Saint Petka Serbian Orthodox Church

Saint Petka Serbian Orthodox Church (Serbian Cyrillic: Црква Свете Петке), constructed in 1962 as the Maidstone Central Public School, is located at 1501 Lakeshore Road 203 in Lakeshore, Ontario, Canada.[1] It is part of the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Canada and under the omophorion of Bishop Mitofan of the Diocese of Canada.

The significance and uniqueness of the building is its architectural style of the 1960s when Canada was approaching its centennial year and special attention was given to construction of new schools and other public buildings across the country at the time.

History

The 1962-1964 building was designed and built in Post Modern design by architect John Peter Thomson (1885-1973)[2] 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.[3]

After operating for 50 years, the Greater Essex County School Board sold the school and 8.21-acre lot to the Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Canada on 11 April 2014. The Saint Petka Church School Congregation 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.[4]

Two temporary priests (Miroljub Todorović, 2014-2017; Drago Knežević, 2018-2020) served the parish until 2021 when Bishop Mitrofan appointed Rev. Duško Marković as permanent priest.

Architecture and fittings

In the 1960s prior to the Canadian Centennial some 900 buildings were built with "national unity" in mind.[5] The Maidstone Central Public School (now Saint Petka Parish) is unique for its orientation to landscape, horizontal, clean lines, flat facade, with the main entrance in glass and decorative ceramic tiles.[6] Also, its interior mirror these attributes. The building is of architectural value because it is the best example in Essex County of Modern design, popularly known as International style. Following modernist design principles, Thomson's building features open space planning with harmony and balance.

The interior is equally remarkable. Two school classrooms were conjoined and converted into a chapel, befitting the Byzantine style with a rich hand-carved iconostasis made in Bosnia where most of the parishioners are from. The icons were hand painted by anonymous artists in the Old Serbian Christian tradition.

See also

References
  1. "Maidstone school targeted for closure". CBC News. 6 May 2010. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  2. "Thomson, John Peter | Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada". dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org.
  3. "JP Thomson Architects Ltd". jpthomson.com. JP Thomson Architects Ltd. 28 May 2013. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  4. Cite web|url=https://orthodoxwiki.org/Saint_Petka_Church_(Lakeshore,_Ontario)%7Ctitle=Saint Petka Church (Lakeshore, Ontario) - OrthodoxWiki|website=orthodoxwiki.org
  5. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/centennial-buildings-50th-anniversary-1.3654283
  6. "Maidstone central public school - Bing".

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