Description of Historic Place

Holy Trinity Anglican Church is a long cruciform-shaped stone structure built in 1883-84 on a corner site in central Winnipeg and now extended to the east by a modern parish hall and surrounded by a bustling high-density commercial cityscape. The City of Winnipeg designation applies to the building on its footprint and listed exterior and interior elements.

Heritage Value

Holy Trinity Anglican Church is a magnificent old stone house of worship, the finest Winnipeg example of Victorian-era Gothic Revival architecture; also superb in its craftsmanship and use of local and imported materials. A downtown landmark from the outset, the building is a careful rendering of English parish church design precepts, from its basic cruciform plan to its lively, complex massing, refined exterior and impressive interior of stone, marble and stained wood and glass, all of which retain considerable integrity. Planned by C.H. Wheeler, one of the city's leading early designers, this exceptional, ambitious project, the third home of a congregation formed in 1867, signalled a new, sophisticated architectural culture in what was then a pioneer prairie city. Today Holy Trinity, centrally situated, visible and enduring in its purpose, is one of two pre-1890 Anglican churches remaining in Winnipeg and, with St. Mary's Cathedral (Roman Catholic), one of two pre-1890 houses of worship that still serve their congregations in the downtown.

Source: City of Winnipeg Standing Policy Committee on Property and Development Minutes, June 24, 2008

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the prominent site character of Holy Trinity Anglican Church include:
- the corner location at northeast Graham Avenue and Donald Street, extending east to Smith Street, in an area of downtown Winnipeg occupied by commercial and public buildings of various ages, sizes, aesthetics and construction
- the church's traditional east-west placement, set back from its Donald and Graham frontages behind an ornamental iron fence within a yard of large trees, shrubs, lawns and flower beds

Key exterior elements that define the building as an impressive Gothic Revival-style stone church include:
- the substantial, elongated cruciform massing on a low foundation, including the shallow porch-narthex, long nave, transepts and chancel, supplemented by a squat bell-tower-porch in the southwest corner, an octagonal broach spire and attached short round tower in the southeast corner, an organ chamber and baptistery-vestry at the east end, etc.
- the solid construction, including the stone columns, wood-trussed roof, superstructure walls of rusticated and smooth-cut Manitoba and Ohio limestone reinforced by stepped buttresses, etc.
- the lively roofline, including the nave's moderately steep gable roof with gable dormers forming a clerestory on each side, the lower cross-gable transept roofs and gabled chancel, the tall, slender conical-shaped pinnacles atop angle buttresses, the high spire and chimneys, the belfry's steep gable roof, etc.
- the many openings in pointed arches, including the main west and secondary south and north doorways; the large nave, transept and chancel windows, the bell tower's lancet windows; etc.

Key elements that define the church's sublime interior character include:
- the large-volume cruciform plan, including the wide, unobstructed nave divided by centre and side aisles; the raised chancel, complete with choir stall, organ and main altar, set behind a sweeping pointed arch; a chapel in the south transept; etc.
- the striking dark-stained wood ceilings, including the nave's narrow boards and hammerbeams carried on heavy marble and stone columns and the chancel's panelled barrel vault
- the windows of multi-hued stained and coloured glass on all sides, some of C.H. Wheeler's design
- the fine wood details and furnishings, including pews with carved bench ends, an elaborate entrance screen with panels, pinnacles, etc., wainscotting, etc.