On the occasion of the cathedral's 50th anniversary the book
The Jubilee of St. Peter's Cathedral, Charlottetown, P. E. Island, 1869-1919: Souvenir Album was written, partly to encapsulate its history to that time (1919) and partly as a souvenir of the Jubilee celebrations performed in the building's honour. The original album was printed in 1919 while the reprint was published by
Forgotten Books in April 30 2018. Both the original author and the original publisher are unknown.
Archive Org has the full text of the original book online in which neither authorship nor publisher are revealed. The text does mention that the price of the album, in 1919, was 50 cents.
Perhaps lesser known than its chapel,
All Souls' Chapel, St. Peter's is substantially larger and 19 years older. While the chapel is built of red Island sandstone, St. Peter's is built almost entirely of brick, with a minimal amount of stone trim. One of the smallest Cathedrals in Canada, it gives the appearance of a much younger building. Bearing a minimum of embellishment, its style could be deemed Gothic Revival, if only for the Gothic arched doors and windows. The only opening which breaks from this style is the large rose window in the face of the bell tower over the stone framed Gothic main entrance. The bell tower has a single recessed panel occupying the majority of each face and ends in a flat topped steeple. No spire soaring to the sky to be found on this Cathedral.
Within, St. Peter's is decorated with memorial stained glass windows down each side of the nave, in the rose window over the entrance and in the end of the chancel. Many of them were crafted in England by Kemp & Son, of London, England, one of the most prominent designers of stained glass. Just inside the entrance is an ornate octagonal holy water font. Overhead, the ceiling forms a graceful arch, supported by equally graceful carved wooden trusses and brackets. Overall, though quite small for a Cathedral, St. Peter's is quite a nice building with a beautiful interior.
In 2004 the Cathedral received a new hall, replacing a hall which had stood beside the Cathedral for over 100 years.
St. Peter's Cathedral, Charlottetown, was built in 1869 as a 'Chapel of Ease' to St. Paul's, the Parish Church on Queen's Square. It began as a convenience for poor people living at "The Bog" near Governor's Pond. Bishop Hibbert Binney, the 4th Bishop of Nova Scotia, whose Letters Patent from the Crown gave him episcopal jurisdiction in Prince Edward Island, made it his Cathedral on the Island in 1879.
The founding of St. Peter's was directly linked to a theological and liturgical revival of the Catholic tradition within Anglicanism, known as the Oxford Movement or Tractarian Movement. This Movement began in England in the 1830's, and spread throughout the Anglican Communion worldwide. By the 1860's, some parishioners of the already long-established St. Paul's Church, in Charlottetown, had been exposed to the Oxford Movement through their travels, and wanted to erect a new church building where the teachings and liturgical observances of that movement could be reflected and practiced.
Land for the new church was made available by Mr.William Cundall, and construction began in 1867. By the spring of 1869, the building was completed, and Mr. Cundall then officially gave the land to the church on June 1st, 1869. The opening services were held on June 13th of that year, but the Cathedral was not consecrated until the Feast of St. Peter, June, 29, 1879. It was constructed in an area of the city known as West Bog. "This neighbourhood was considered disreputable", we are told. Today, however, it is known as an ideal and central location, standing as it does, directly across the street from our Provincial Government Building.
From St. Peter's Cathedral