Up until 1915, St. John’s Petawawa had been one of several congregations within a larger parish. The parish at that time consisted of congregations in Pembroke, Alice and Chalk River, in addition to St. John’s. In 1915, the Pembroke congregation decided to withdraw from the parish, and stand alone.[i] At the request of the Synod, the parish was consequently divided, with new parishes formed: Pembroke, Alice/Petawawa, and Chalk River. Pastor E. A. Gomann was requested to accept the call of the Alice/Petawawa parish by Dr. E. Hoffman of Toronto, then the Synod President. This change in alignment raised the question of where the new Pastor would live. A new parsonage would have to be built in one of the two locations, as the original parsonage (for the larger congregation) had been taken over by Pembroke. While the process by which the decision on locale was made is not clear at this time, the new parsonage was, in fact, built beside St. John’s, and dedicated in August, 1915. The decision apparently caused some discontent in the inhabitants of Alice, as they, naturally, would have wanted the Pastor to reside with them. But the situation was eventually resolved. As then Pastor Gomann writes, “However, this discontent gradually disappeared through repeated visits [to Alice] and counselling of the Pastor…”.

The parsonage around 1930 showing trees along the driveway, a new porch on the front of the building, and Luther Hall to the right rear.

The  parsonage as photographed  in 2017  from the same vantage point as the 1915 photograph was taken.