St. James' Anglican Church — Vancouver, BC
Posted by: 
Dunbar Loop
N 49° 16.946 W 123° 05.849
10U E 492909 N 5458857
St. James' Anglican Church has been a part of Vancouver for five years before the incorporation of the city in 1886. The current building is the third to have been constructed for the congregation.
Waymark Code: WM11330
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 08/07/2019
Views: 5
In the 1930s Father Wilberforce Cooper commissioned British architect Adrian Gilbert Scott to design the current building. It is an interesting combination of Art Deco, Romanesque Revival, Byzantine Revival, and Gothic Revival architecture.
St. James' Anglican Church
Architect: Adrian Gilbert Scott
The first St. James' Church (1881) on Alexander Street was to be moved to this property - donated by the CPR - upon the railway's arrival in 1886. Instead it was destroyed in the city fire, and a larger English country-style church was built to serve the Anglo-Catholic parish. As early as 1904, Father Fiennes-Clinton summarized its shortcomings, stating, "wooden buildings are not permanent." In the 1930s Father Wilberforce Cooper commissioned English architect Adrian Gilbert Scott for a new church set between the Parish Hall (1925) and the Clergy House (1927) (Sharp & Thompson Architects). The new building, completed in 1936, is a modern interpretation of 14th c. Gothic style, and was one of the first cast exposed concrete buildings in Vancouver. Many original interior fixtures remain, and it has one the largest bell arrays in the city, rung three times daily since 1938.