Description of Historic Place

St. Luke's Anglican Church, a stone structure built between 1904 and 1914, is set on landscaped grounds amid tree-lined streets in the densely populated neighbourhood of Osborne Village south of downtown Winnipeg. The provincial designation applies to the church and its large site.

Heritage Value

St. Luke's Anglican Church, a solid structure with a sprawling horizontal character reminiscent of English parish churches, is an exceptional Manitoba example of Late Gothic Revival design, one that displays a unified style despite its staged development under different architects, C.S. Bridgman (1904-05, 1909-10) and Woodman and Carey (1913-14). The dignified edifice, with its tower, broad pointed windows, judicious Gothic detailing and large parish hall, is relatively restrained in the medieval tradition, yet also exhibits an expressive use of materials through its fine stonework and elements such as oversized buttresses. Interior appointments are equally notable, especially the wooden rood screen designed by architect C.W.U. Chivers and magnificent stained-glass windows by Robert McCausland Ltd. of Toronto and Morris and Co. of England. St. Luke's, one of four pre-1914 churches clustered on its street to serve Winnipeg's Fort Rouge and Crescentwood districts, remains an impressive statement of its era's architectural and religious aspirations.

Source: Manitoba Heritage Council Minutes, January 13, 1996

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the St. Luke's Anglican Church site include:
- the corner location at northeast Nassau Street North and Stradbrook Avenue, in a residential area just south of the Assiniboine River, with the parish hall also highly visible at the foot of Norquay Street
- the complex's east-west alignment, set back from public sidewalks on well-maintained grounds

Key exterior elements that define the complex's fine stonework and Late Gothic Revival style include:
- the moderately low, sprawling form incorporating two distinct components: the elongated church with a front bell tower and various ancillary volumes and the high, rectangular 1 1/2-storey parish hall set off the church's northeast corner
- the highly varied roofline, punctuated by the tower, tall stone chimneys and gable dormers, including long flared gable roofs, hipped, flared pyramidal and flat roofs over subsidiary volumes, etc.
- the exceptional stonework throughout, including rusticated limestone walls, buttresses, pilasters, window surrounds, etc., contrasted by smooth-cut stone details such as banding elements, offsets, etc.

Key elements that define the heritage character of the church include:
- the formal entrance tower with its large diagonal buttresses, crenellated parapet and double doors beneath a stone pediment and Latin cross
- the major Gothic Revival features, including doors, windows and belfry openings in pointed arches, wooden tracery in windows and transoms, heavy buttresses at corners and along walls, etc.
- other fine details, such as the tower's inset stone clocks, modillioned cornice and inscribed cornerstone, stone foils, metal door hardware, modestly adorned dormer bargeboards, etc.
- the largely unaltered interior layout of a front vestibule, the nave with a high vaulted ceiling and wide centre aisle, a raised chancel and altar, side vestibules, offices, hallways, basement staircases, etc.
- the nave's arched-brace ceiling with hammerbeams, with planks laid diagonally and darkly stained
- the continuation of Gothic motifs, including smooth plaster walls articulated by pointed arched arcades with piers, pointed arches with carved detailing above the chancel, doorways and recessed windows, etc.
- the exquisite features and finishes, including the stained-glass windows, the carved wooden rood screen and reredos, the oak-panelled chancel and other dark-stained woodwork throughout

Key elements that define the heritage character of the parish hall include:
- the distinctive fenestration, including sets of large multi-paned basement windows in broad stone arches and groups of lintelled main-floor openings
- the major exterior features, including the south porch with elegant stone ornamentation over the doorway, the southeast corner turret with a crenellated parapet and polygonal roof, the truncated corner turrets on the north side, the crocketed wood spire with a weathercock, etc.
- details such as the embrasure-like openings in the gable ends, the scroll-like carvings over the main door, the wraparound upper course of animal, botanical and other symbols, etc.
- the spacious and functional interior layout, including the open-area basement, the main-floor hall with a stage and movable walls for creating classrooms, the kitchen, etc.