St. James Presbyterian Church Sherbrooke fonds

The dissenting congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Sherbrooke was established as an entity on 29 March 1838. Prior to that time, various clergy visited or labored on a part-time basis with services being held in homes or the school. The first church building (meeting house) was erected ca 1820-24. In 1824, Rev. Alexander Lewis was ordained and Sherbrooke received one-quarter of his services. By 1847, there was a need for a new church and in 1852, a building committee was appointed. On 29 September 1855, the Sessions met for the first time in the new church. In 1859, the Secessionist Congregation of Sherbrooke passed a resolution favouring the union of the Free Church with the Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia. With the establishment of the Historic Sherbrooke Village Restoration in the late 1960s, the church building was included as a part of the restoration but the congregation continued to worship in the building until 27 June 2007, at which time the Sherbrooke Presbyterian congregation was dissolved. The ownership of the building was transferred to the Province of Nova Scotia in 2010. The building is used for weddings, funerals, and special events, as well as being part of the living history museum, and is maintained by Historic Sherbrooke Village.