Christ Church Cathedral (Montreal)

Christ Church Cathedral is an Anglican Gothic Revival cathedral in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Montreal. It is located at 635 Saint Catherine Street West, between Avenue Union and Boulevard Robert-Bourassa. It is situated on top of the Promenades Cathédrale underground shopping mall, and south of Tour KPMG. It was classified as historical monument by the government of Quebec on May 12, 1988. In 1999, it was designated a National Historic Site of Canada.

History

An Anglican ministry first began in Montreal in 1760. Services were held in chapels of the Roman Catholic Church for the first half-century. In 1789, the Anglican congregation of Montreal received a former Jesuit church, renaming it as Christ Church. The building was used by the congregation until 1803, when it was destroyed in a fire. The clergyman was appointed by Dorchester as garrison chaplain of Montreal in 1766, with inaugural service in Christ Church was pronounced by him on 20 December 1789. The first Christ Church was in fact the repaired and re-dedicated Jesuit church. So it was the second church building that was constructed in 1814.

In 1850, the second Christ Church was designated as the cathedral for the new Anglican Diocese of Montreal upon its separation from the Anglican Diocese of Quebec. The cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1856.

The present cathedral, a neo-Gothic structure, was designed by architect Frank Wills (1822–1856), who also designed Christ Church Cathedral in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Before construction began, Willis died, and Montreal architect Thomas Seaton Scott (1826–1895) was commissioned to carry out his design. The structure was completed in 1859 and consecrated in 1867.

Andrew Taylor oversaw alterations and other restoration of the cathedral from 1890 to 1891 and installed a memorial window for Mrs. A.C. Hooper in 1902–03.

Modeled after the 14th century Gothic-style churches of the English countryside, the cathedral features a square crossing tower.

Unfortunately, the design, though acclaimed for its architecture, suffered from important engineering flaws. The soft ground could not support the heavy central stone tower and steeple, which began to subside and lean. This defect formed the basis of an important lawsuit concerning builder's liability, which went all the way to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, at that time the highest court in the British Empire. The Judicial Committee upheld the decisions of the Quebec courts, which had held that the builder was liable for having built the steeple on ground that could not support its weight: ''Wardle v. Bethune''''Wardle_v_Bethune'',_[1872
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