What is the name of this place?

Here we view a classic shot by photographer William James Topley of a significant Anglican house of worship in Canada’s capital.  Its name?  It all depends on when the photograph was taken.  If before 1908, we call it Grace Church, Ottawa.  But from that year forward it increasingly came to be known as Saint John the Evangelist Church, Ottawa.

The roots of Saint John the Evangelist parish go much further back than that.  In 1860, when there was still only one parish in the City of Ottawa, Christ Church was still located at the western limits of the city, whereas the larger population resided in Lower Town, and there was promise of the Sandy Hill area being developed once parliament moved to Ottawa from Québec.  The congregation of Christ Church (later the cathedral) built a stone ‘chapel of ease’ on Sussex Street at the corner of George Street which it also used as a school room.

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Bishop John Travers Lewis by 1871 perceived that Ottawa as capital would soon outdistance Kingston, and began working to have a Diocese of Ottawa created out of the northern and eastern sections of the Diocese of Ontario.  Coming to prefer residing in Ottawa as opposed to Kingston, Bishop Lewis officiated at services in the chapel of ease, causing it to be called ‘The Bishop’s Chapel.’  The worthy bishop hoped to build a national cathedral on the spot, but when he was called away to reside in his true see city, instead the stone chapel came to be known as Saint John’s Church.

In the early 1900s the federal government prepared to expropriate Saint John’s in preparation for building the Connaught Building, when the stone church happened to burn down.  As the congregation had no hope of rebuilding on their existing site, they chose to amalgamate with Grace Church—the structure we view here—which had been built in 1890 at the intersection of Elgin and Somerset streets.  The amalgamated congregation came to be known by the name of the older parish.

By whichever name it was known—Grace or Saint John’s—the church at the corner of Elgin Street and Somerset was distinguished by a number of features.  It was built of red brick on a foundation of cut grey Gloucester limestone.  Its features included a landmark tower with battlements, and angled buttresses on the upper tower.  All buttresses and pointed windows were capped or distinguished by Ohio freestone, there were vents in dormer gables on the roof and transepts.  This church was distinguished by four features it possessed and one it did not.  First, it was one of only two Anglican churches in the diocese built with a baptistery (the square structure to the right of the main entrance).  Second, it may well have been built with the earliest purpose-built parish hall in a parish church (on the far right).  Third, the large west and chancel windows featured double-layered stained glass in order to add to the realism of the scenes portrayed in them.  Fourth, the very narrow side windows lining the nave together with the dark wood paneling made for a very dark church interior.  If there were bats in the large belfry, they remained undisturbed for over a century, as a bell was not installed until 2001.           

Documents the Archives collects for parishes include parish registers, vestry reports, service registers, minutes of groups and committees, financial documents, property records (including cemeteries and architectural plans), insurance policies, letters, pew bulletins, photographs and paintings, scrapbooks, parish newsletters and unusual documents.