Description of Historic Place

Holy Trinity Anglican Church is a substantial steel frame, clinker brick clad, gable roofed building located on seven lots on a corner of the King George residential district in Edmonton. An early twentieth century church built in the Gothic Revival style, the church features a square crenellated front tower and prominent stained glass windows. An adjoining parish hall, sympathetic in massing and materials is also included on the site.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of Holy Trinity Anglican Church lies chiefly in its architectural significance as an excellent example of a mid-size Gothic Revival Church built using clinker bricks. The site is additionally significant as one of the earliest religious communities established in the historic neighbourhood of Old Strathcona of Edmonton.

With the ready availability of high quality brick and decorative clinker bricks in Edmonton, the choice of materials is logical, and demonstrates the significance of this local material. For a time Edmonton was known to have the most clinker brick buildings in Canada. Because they had been over fired, clinker bricks were often considered undesirable. Their irregular and burnt appearance, however, found favour with some with some creative designers, architects, and bricklayers. The striking umber, sienna, and cadmium colours of this brick type commended its use to many more. The clinker bricks used to accent the exterior of Holy Trinity evoke the flint cobbles found in many English stone prototypes. The application of this material is imaginative in its evocation of Gothic Revival English church architecture for a mid-size urban congregation.

Officially opening in 1913 by Bishop Pinkham of Calgary, in whose Diocese Strathcona was then included, the Holy Trinity Anglican Church represents a long history of Anglican presence in the region. The parish has roots going back to 1893, when a local group composed primarily of English pioneers began the work. Since that time several prominent citizens have been affiliated with the parish.

Source: Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch (File: Des. 959)

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church include such features as:
- size, form, and massing;
- elements of the simplified yet sophisticated Gothic Revival style that emulates rural English parish churches;
- square corner tower with crenellations and pointed arch windows;
- the use of clinker bricks;
- concrete elements in the buttressing;
- flooring in the nave;
- brick Gothic arched doorways;
- the steeply sloping gable roof, end wall parapets, buttresses and pointed windows;
- window tracery and stained glass windows from various periods of the Church's development;
- interior woodwork including oak banisters, staircases, mouldings and trim,
- sandstone elements in the decoration of the buttresses,
- double fronted Gothic entry including oak doors;
- exposed wooden bracketing in the interior of the nave.