All Souls Chapel National Historic Site of Canada

All Souls Chapel is a small chapel built in the High Victorian Gothic Revival style of rust-red, Prince Edward Island sandstone. It is attached to the side of St. Peter’s Anglican Cathedral, a brick Gothic Revival church built in 1867-9. All Souls Chapel is located in Charlottetown’s historic downtown, next to Rochford Square Park and the Provincial Government Buildings. The formal recognition consists of the building on its legal property.

All Souls Chapel was designated a national historic site in 1990 because it is an exceptional example of the High Victorian Gothic Revival Style in Canadian architecture.

All Souls Chapel was designed by the celebrated Island architect William Critchlow Harris as a memorial to the Reverend George Hodgson, the first priest-incumbent of the Cathedral. On the exterior, Harris fashioned a masterful local interpretation of High Victorian Gothic Revival architecture by using roughly textured, rust-red Prince Edward Island sandstone to create the colour and texture demanded of the style. Harris’ interior design is representative of the style’s capacity to embrace other architectural influences, such as the Romanesque. The eighteen mural paintings that distinguish the interior are by the well-known 19th-century Canadian artist Robert Harris, brother of the architect and painter of the official portrait of the Fathers of Confederation.

Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minute, February 1990.

Key elements which relate to the heritage value include:

- its simple form and proportions of the chapel, based on long rectangular plan;

- its steeply pitched gable roof;

- its deep-set hooded windows;

- the gable end profiles with kneelers finished in sandstone;

- its masterful use of rough-textured Prince Edward Island sandstone masonry on the exterior for wall surfaces, window surrounds, and parapets;

- its simple exterior detailing drawn from Medieval and Romanesque precedents, including, its label mouldings, its buttresses, its pointed-arch windows, and its small porch;

- its interior architectural elements and decorations associated with High Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, including, the dramatic chancel arch of Romanesque influence, the rich carvings, the terra cotta medallions, the encaustic tiles and the stained glass windows;

- the altar screen designed by William Critchlow Harris with its arched niches containing statues of the apostles;

- the mural paintings executed by Robert Harris;

- its setting as part of the larger St. Peter’s Anglican Cathedral complex in historic downtown Charlottetown.