Bethlehem Lutheran Church Manse
(The Parsonage)
Queen Elizabeth Road,
Erickson

Designation Date: September 15, 1987
Designation Authority: The Town of Erickson
Present Owner: Town of Erickson

This house was built in the winter of 1897–98 by Swedish immigrants in the Erickson area to house the minister of Bethlehem Lutheran Church. The countryside around Erickson is home to one of the province's major concentrations of Swedish immigrants, renowned for their ability to build with logs. The house is an excellent example of log construction, in this case carried out with dovetailed corner joints. Originally the building was sheathed with wooden shingles. In its form, the manse has its roots in the early southern Ontario house, which was defined by an L-shaped plan, 1½ storey height and a steeply pitched gable window on the building's main face.