Description of Historic Place

The Church of Saint Andrew and Saint David Provincial Historic Site is a brick and masonry church building located at 164 Germain Street, in the Trinity Royal Municipal Preservation Area of the City of Saint John.

Heritage Value

Built in 1878-79 and designed by Toronto architects Langley, Langley and Burke, this church was designated because of its historical association with the Gothic Revival in Victorian church architecture. It is also significant because it typified the architectural exuberance of the post-fire building boom in Saint John. Being one of the largest and most architecturally significant buildings erected following the Great Fire of Saint John, this site was noted for its close connection with the rebuilding of the city after the 1877 conflagration. The city adopted Gothic Revival influences wholeheartedly in the shaping of a new, post-fire urban landscape. This church is part of the larger story of Saint John’s determined recovery from the fire’s devastation. Of further significance is the church’s congregational history that stretches back to the formal establishment of the City of Saint John in the late eighteenth century and mirrors the city’s development. The present building was located on the site of the city’s original, wooden, Neo-Classical Presbyterian Kirk, built in 1815. St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, as it was originally known, was the “Mother Church of Presbyterianism” in New Brunswick. Memorial plaques inside the church bear the names of prominent Scots who were among Saint John’s Loyalist settlers serving to commemorate the social and cultural heritage of Presbyterian worship in the city dating back to the late eighteenth century. Source: New Brunswick Culture & Sort Secretariat, Heritage Branch, Site File # 99.

Character-Defining Elements

The church is built on the site of the original, wooden Kirk, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, built in 1815. Neo-Gothic design influences in the furnishings and elaborate decorative detail found in the church’s exterior include: - its limestone and brick exterior composition; - the church’s front facade, with its finely executed triple entrance doorways, five-light stained glass window above, and square, three-step Gothic corner tower, belfry and spire. Neo-Gothic design influences in the furnishings and elaborate decorative detail found in the church’s interior include: - the three-sided pulpit that defines the church’s liturgical space was designed and crafted by John Rogerson. The pulpit includes carved wooden panels, one of the most striking features of the building’s interior, and the elaborate Biblical motif of the flaming bush, found on the front panel; - details seen in the vaulted ceiling; - stained glass windows on the main floor and balcony-level; - the pointed arch motif expressed throughout the church’s interior. All of this culminates in the large sweeping arch behind the pulpit, which houses the Casavant pipe organ installed in 1927; - memorial plaques inside the church.