St John The Baptist Anglican Cathedral - St John's, Newfoundland - Atlantic Canada Heritage Properties on Waymarking.com

In researching the history of several of the grand church buildings in St. John's, a pattern begins to emerge. Beginning in the 1840's there seems to have been a race to building the biggest and most impressive church building. In many cases, progress was slow or construction was stopped altogether, due to shortages in funds, materials, labor, or other reasons. Ultimately, construction was sometimes not complete for decades.

St John The Baptist Anglican Cathedral fits that patterns as well as the nearby Basilica Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, and I can only speculate that some degree of "competition" existed, if you will, to be the first to build the most massive structure in the colony (not to mention the fact that both cathedrals are named after John the Baptist, the cousin of the Christ). Consider the following: the cornerstone of the Anglican cathedral was laid in 1843, just two years after the cornerstone for the Roman Catholic cathedral was laid. Further construction of the Anglican cathedral was stalled until 1847, at which point construction of the nave (the main portion of the building) proceeded rapidly, being completed and put into service by 1850 - 5 years before the catholic cathedral was completed. Still, the entire structure was not completed until 1885 (and sadly it would suffer catastrophic loss by fire just seven years later).

A concise history of the church building is provided on the parish website. The following is a modified version of that text:

This parish was founded in 1699 in response to a petition drafted by the Anglican townsfolk of St. John's and sent to the Bishop of London, the Rt. Rev. Henry Compton. In this petition, the people also requested help in the rebuilding of their church, which had been destroyed by fire in the course of hostilities with the French. The first rector was a former Royal Naval chaplain, the Rev. John Jackson. At least six wooden churches stood on or near this site. Those that survived the rigours of Newfoundland weather fell victim to accidental fires and military operations during the wars between the French and the British which finally resulted in British control of North America. The first stone church was begun in 1843 under the direction of Aubrey Spencer, the first bishop of Newfoundland, but little progress was made on this relatively modest edifice beyond the laying of a cornerstone before Bishop Spencer resigned due to ill health. The present Cathedral was begun in 1847 by Edward FeiId, the second bishop of NewfoundIand. Bishop Feild commissioned plans from the leading Gothic Revival architect George Gilbert Scott, who envisioned a more impressive cruciform structure with varied ornamentation in the twelfth-century English style. The Nave, built between 1847 and 1850, served as the entire Cathedral Church for 35 years until the Transepts, Chancel and Sanctuary were added in the period 1880-1885. On July 8, 1892, the Cathedral was extensively damaged by fire. The roof timbers ignited, which caused the roof to collapse, bringing the clerestory walls and piers in the nave down with it. The intense heat caused the lead to melt in the glass windows, resulting in the complete destruction of all but two; the sole surviving window can be seen in the Sacristy. Restoration of the Cathedral commenced in 1893. By 1895, the Chancel and Transepts had been rebuilt, while the Nave reached completion in 1905. The Cathedral was built in the Imperial system of measure, in which 1 foot equals 0.3048 metre. The Cathedral stretches 200 feet from the Great West Doors to the Sanctuary, with a 60-foot wide nave and a maximum width of 99 feet at the transepts. Where nave and transept cross, the floor-to-ceiling height is 57 feet; outside, the roof stands 80 feet high at the ridge. Source: www.stjohnsanglicancathedral.org/history.html; accessed April 2019

St. John the Baptist Anglican Cathedral was designated as a National Historic Site of Canada on November 15th, 1979. A plaque affixed to a stone in front of the church reads:

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL CATHEDRALE ANGLICAN ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST Begun in 1847, under the direction of Bishop Feild, this cathedral was designed by the noted British architect George Gilbert Scott and is an internationally important monument of the Gothic Revival style. Its historical correctness and structural rationalism express the ideals of the Cambridge Camden Society, an English Group dedicated to reforming the Anglican Church through a return to 13th century sources. The internal composition of nave and aisles is clearly reflected on the exterior. Scott's cathedral burned in 1892 and was rebuilt by his son soon after. The intended tower has never been erected. Oeuvre du célèbre architecte anglais George Gilbert Scott, cette cathédrale, mise en chantier en 1847 par l'évêque Feild, est un monument de style néo-gothique de renommée internationale. La fidélité historique et la rationalité de l'agencement traduisent l'idéal de la Cambridge Camden Society, groupe anglais voué à la réforme de l'Église anglicane par un retour à l'architecture du XIIIe siècle. La composition intérieure de la nef et des bas-côtés apparaît clairement à l'extérieur. Détruite par le feu en 1892, la cathédrale fut peu après reconstruite par le fils de Scott. La tour projetée ne fut jamais érigée.

The church building is also a City of St. John's Heritage Building and a Provincial Registered Heritage Structure. The following description of the building and it's significance is taken from the Canadian Register of Historic Places website:

Description of Historic Place

St. John the Baptist Anglican Cathedral National Historic Site of Canada is an austerely magnificent stone cathedral built in the Gothic Revival style. It is located on a hillside overlooking the harbour of St. John’s in a mixed commercial and residential neighbourhood of late-19th-century buildings. The formal recognition consists of the building on its legal property.

Heritage Value

St. John the Baptist Anglican Cathedral was designated as a national historic site of Canada in 1979 because:
— it is a nationally significant example of the Gothic Revival Style;
— its historical correctness and structural rationalism express the ideals of the Cambridge Camden Society.

Construction of the original St. John the Baptist Anglican Cathedral, for Canada’s oldest Anglican parish, began in 1847. It was built under the direction of Right Reverend Edward Field, Bishop of Newfoundland, and designed by the well-known English church architect George Gilbert Scott. The Cathedral is a faithful example of Scott’s ecclesiastical work, which conformed to the tenets of the Cambridge Camden Society. The Society was dedicated to recapturing the spirit and form of 13th-century Gothic church architecture. This was of particular significance in the British colonies, where a prescriptive approach to church design was intended to create a distinct and recognizable Anglican architectural identity consistent with the Anglican creed.

St. John the Baptist Anglican Cathedral, as designed by Scott, fully reflected the Society’s intentions and expectations. It was a correct Ecclesiological interpretation of Gothic architecture as articulated by the English architectural theorist A.W.N. Pugin. It occupied a dramatic site on the side of the hill near the harbour of St. John’s, which added to its monumentality. Constructed of Irish limestone and local sandstone, its symbolic cruciform plan, tall ceiling and interior arrangement followed Ecclesiological tradition. In 1892 the unfinished cathedral was almost completely destroyed during one of the great fires of St. John’s. Using surviving exterior walls, the architect’s son George Gilbert Scott Jr. rebuilt the cathedral according to his father’s original plans, with careful attention paid to local climatic conditions. It remains an early and fine example of the ecclesiological Gothic Revival style in North America. Its setting in a well-preserved turn-of-the-century neighbourhood strengthens the original design intentions.

Sources: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, November 1979, February 1990.

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements contributing to the heritage value of St. John the Baptist Anglican Cathedral include:
— its siting on a hillside in downtown St. John’s;
— its large scale and cruciform plan with nave and transepts, consistent with its consecration as a cathedral;
— its interior arrangement of a nave, side aisles, transepts, and a chancel and sanctuary reflecting the ecclesiological tenets of the Cambridge Camden Society and the clear articulation of functional plan on the exterior, as seen in the crossing of the nave and transept roofs and in the clerestory’s marking of the centre aisle of the nave;
— the planar exterior massing with flat east end, simple west front, north porch and truncated tower over the crossing built as base for a planned tower;
— its rugged construction of Irish limestone and local granite with limited exterior ornamentation concentrated on the main entrance, primarily composed of dressed sandstone around openings, corners and cornices, purposely intended to reduce the Cathedral’s vulnerability to decay in the extreme weather conditions in St. John’s;
— its restrained Gothic Revival style exterior detailing, including buttressing, pointed-arch windows, round windows in the transept gables, dressed sandstone parapets, quatrefoil windows, Gothic Revival style tracery, plain rustic masonry, and the grouping of tall lancet windows above the main entrance porch;
— the austere Gothic Revival style interior detailing, including, the simple wooden rib-vaulted ceiling and vaulted aisles;
— the stained glass windows, including the single stained glass window that survived the 1892 fire;
— interior decorations and fixed furnishings, including carved pillars, baptismal font, the high altar, reredos, Bishop’s throne, and pulpit.

Source: www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=12663, accessed April 2019

URL of Page from Heritage Register: [Web Link] Site's Own URL: [Web Link] Address of site: 16 Church Hill, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador

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