Heritage Register
James Bay

520 Niagara Street
St James Mission of Christ Church Cathedral School

Built 1939
Heritage-Registered/Institutional

For: Anglican Synod of BC

Architect: Percy Leonard James
Contractors: William Trerise & Williams

ARCHITECTURE:

This small institutional building is a handsome one-storey, front-gabled brick structure with parapeted gable ends covered in metal. Each gable has a narrow slit with louvres for venting the attic. The bricks are laid in English bond, very rare for the Victoria area. The projecting front porch on the symmetrical front façade has a castellated parapet roof. Two central tiers of concrete steps lead to the porch; the upper tier has a solid brick balustrade. There is a rectangular addition on the right side and an entrance to the basement on the rear. On the rear on both the main level and basement are four-over-eight wooden windows with concrete headers. Both sides of the building have four-over-twelve wooden windows which begin at the roofline and have brick sills. The foundation is concrete; there is a quarter-round garden with a number of small palm trees to the right of the main entrance. A cornerstone to the left of the front porch states that the school was erected in 1939 by a grateful parishioner “for the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom amongst young people.”

ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:

James Bay Sunday School or Cathedral School as it was commonly called, was designed by P.L. James and built by contractors Williams Trerise & Williams in 1939 for $6,000. It operated as an Anglican Sunday School until 1974. Brownies and Girl Guides met here in the 1950s. In 1975, the building was leased to the Provincial Government for use by the Department of Human Resources. By 1982, it was known as the Renaissance School, and then was used as a day care centre.

This Sunday school likely replaced that of St James Anglican Church on the corner of Quebec and Pendray Sts. The church, designed by William H.L. de la Penotière & George Wake, was consecrated in 1885, but suffered financial difficulties over a number of years and was demolished in 1922.

In 2015-16 the building was purchase by a young family who sympathetically reconfirgured it as a home.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & IMAGES:

• James Bay History

• James Bay Heritage Register

• This Old House, Victoria's Heritage Neighbourhoods,
Volume Two: James Bay