Cathedral Church of St. James
Cathedral Church of St. James
The Cathedral Church of St James in Toronto, Ontario, is the oldest congregation in the city. Established in 1797, the current structure was completed in 1844 and was one of the largest buildings in the city. The church cemetery was moved in the 1840s to St James-the-Less at Parliament and Bloor, although there are still unmarked graves under the modern parking lot. The church is listed as an Ontario Heritage Property and a National Historic Site and is the episcopal seat of the Anglican Church of Canada's Diocese of Toronto.
At 305 feet (92.9 m), the cathedral's spire makes it the second tallest church
in Canada, after Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal. It was designed by Fredrick
Cumberland and is a prime example of Gothic Revival architecture. It opened for
services on June 19, 1853, and the clock tower was finished in 1874, with the
clock being installed a year later. The total length of the cathedral is 198
feet, with a maximum width of 98 feet.
The cathedral's tower clock has five bells that still ring through the city
today, and the chiming clock is "one of the finest examples of a chiming public
clock anywhere in the world." The tower also houses a full peal of 12
change-ringing bells, the largest such peal in North America.
At the turn of the 20th century, St James' Cathedral was the tallest building in
Toronto, and was often the first thing immigrants noticed when they stepped off
the train at old Union Station.
Royal St. George's College, on Howland Avenue, is the church's choir school and
is open to boys in grades 3 through 12. The school houses the Chapel of St Alban
the Martyr. The chaplain is Fr David Donkin.
To raise money to help pay for rising costs of maintaining the church, part of
the grounds were planned to be sold to a condo developer. Part of the land was
to been part of the original cemetery, and the developers planned to move the
tombs as to clear the land. Public outcry ensued and a deal was made to sell off
a parking lot to the north west of the church for the Spire condo development.
Text from Wikipedia
memorial to soldier who died during the Boer War
baptismal font
fence fit for a cathedral
horse watering basin in a neighboring park
