Description of Historic Place

St. John the Divine Anglican Church is a landmark wood-frame Gothic Revival church, with Gothic windows and spire. It is located on Kingsway, one of Burnaby's main commercial thoroughfares, near the SkyTrain transit line and across the street from Central Park.

Heritage Value

St. John the Divine Church is valued as a symbol of the traditions of early Burnaby pioneers and as the oldest surviving church building in the city. Established in 1899, St. John was the first church in the community and was located at a prominent intersection of the old Vancouver-Westminster Road (now Kingsway) and the British Columbia Electric Railway's interurban station at Central Park. This prominent intersection of the road and rail developed as the town centre of the Central Park district. The first St. John church was destroyed by fire, and was rebuilt at the same location in 1904-05.

This church is additionally significant for its association with prominent local architect Joseph Henry Bowman (1864-1943) who emigrated from England in 1888. Bowman was a member of the parish, and designed both the first church and its subsequent replacement. Bowman's prolific career embraced many stylistic changes and technological advances, and this church is a surviving example of one of his rare religious commissions. The design of the new church's nave and vestry was based on the Gothic Revival style of Christ Church Anglican in Surrey, B.C., which had been the former church of St. John's incumbent Rev. William Bell.

Evolving over time as the congregation grew, the church received a number of early additions, and in 1953 was substantially renovated and enlarged through a new design by Vancouver architect Ross Lort. The original church nave was separated from the tower and turned to allow for a large addition. The congregation relocated to a new church in 1998, and at that time removed the church's memorial windows, leaving behind a number of the original art glass windows installed in the 1920s. The church building was renovated in 2004-05, and surviving original elements were retained and restored, including the original church tower and interior chancel ceiling. A valued feature of the building is the original cast iron church bell that remains in the tower. The bell was purchased by the children of the congregation in 1912, and in 1924 was rededicated on Armistice Day as a memorial to Burnaby resident Lt. James Donald McRae Reid, who died in the First World War.

Source: Heritage Site Files, City of Burnaby, Planning and Building Department

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of St. John the Divine Anglican Church include its:
- location on the north side of Kingsway, opposite Central Park
- ecclesiastical form, scale and massing as expressed by the offset tower and tall, gabled roof
- tower with its original horizontal wooden drop siding, bellcast square roof with octagonal drum above and bellcast octagonal spire
- cedar shingle roof cladding
- metal cross at peak of spire
- Gothic Revival details such as: Gothic lancet windows with leaded stained glass panels; Gothic entrance door at the base of the tower; pointed-arch louvers in the tower; and exterior gable end scissor-trusses
- interior features such as wooden scissor-trusses with diagonal fir tongue and groove panelling on the ceiling above, fir tongue-and-groove panelling on the wall of the nave, and original cedar and fir pews and altar rails
- cast iron bell in tower