St. Anne's Anglican Church

History and Architecture

The plan of St. Anne's Anglican Church owes its origins to Reverend Lawrence Skey, rector of the church from 1902 to1933. Trained as a theologian, Skey firmly believed in a return to the pre-Roman roots of Christianity. Shortly after his appointment at St. Anne's, Skey took a sabbatical leave to study church architecture. His travels took him to Istanbul, where the magnificent Early Byzantine church Hagia Sophia (532-537 CE) made a strong impression on him.

Upon his return to Toronto, Skey held an architectural competition and awarded the contract for the construction of the new church to a young Toronto architect, William Ford Howland, who may have accompanied Skey to Istanbul. Howland's proposed design, radically different from the conventional Gothic architecture preferred by the Anglican Church of Canada, was not popular among the parishioners. (See also Anglicanism in Canada.) Nevertheless, Skey prevailed. Work was finished in two years by October 1908, costing $55,000, a considerable sum in those days.

St. Anne's is constructed of concrete and brick and is based on a cruciform plan with a distinctive central dome, 21 meters in height (compared to the 55.6 metres of Hagia Sophia). The supporting pendentives (triangular, spherical corner supports for the dome) spring from four columns of Caen stone.

Group of Seven

Once the church was built, Reverend Lawrence Skey turned to decorating the drab concrete interior with art. At the Arts and Letters Club on Elm Street in Toronto, he became friends with J.E.H. MacDonald, who embraced Skey's plans. In 1923 MacDonald accepted a commission to paint and decorate St. Anne's and he brought in nine more artists including two other members of the Group of Seven, Frederick Horsman Varley and Franklin Carmichael, along with architect William Rae and sculptors Frances Norma Loring and Florence Wyle.

Skey made a strong contribution to the subject matter of the decoration. Greek symbols linked St. Anne's to the past. The pendentive paintings illustrated the life of Jesus. The great dome was decorated in red with various symbols. The cornice of the dome carried scripture in gold leaf: "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Varley painted the four massive heads of the prophets Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel. The Transfiguration by MacDonald, a subject on which Skey had written, was set above the central window. The principal paintings were placed in the four pendentives: The Nativity (Varley), the Crucifixion (MacDonald), the Resurrection (H.S. Palmer) and the Ascension (H.G. Stansfield). Art critic John Bentley Mays in 1995 described the overall effect as "a symphony in colour and design." The church murals are the Group's only known religious artworks.

Heritage

In 1980, under the Ontario Heritage Act, the City of Toronto recognized the architectural and historical value of St. Anne’s Anglican Church. In recognition of the church’s artwork, the church was also designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1996. (See also National Historic Sites in Canada.)

Fire

On 9 June 2024, the building and the interior artifacts of St. Anne’s Anglican Church were destroyed by a four-alarm fire. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. In an article for The Globe and Mail architectural historian Peter Coffman is quoted describing the fire as “a catastrophe for Canadian architecture, Canadian art and Canadian heritage.”