Anglican Cathedral Parish House

The Anglican Cathedral Parish House has been designated a heritage building by the city of St. John’s due to its aesthetic, historic and environmental values.

The Anglican Cathedral Parish House is aesthetically valuable as it is a fine example of brick construction in St. John’s following the Great Fire of 1892. It has further aesthetic value as a restrained example of Queen Anne Revival design, executed in brick and stone, in St. John’s. Typical features of this style utilized in the construction of The Anglican Cathedral Parish House include the use of red brick, quoining, asymmetrical facade, multi-gabled steep pitched roof, chimney stacks, ornamental horizontal banding to visually divide storeys and the use of an assortment of window styles. Similar in design to The Deanery (Cathedral Parish Rectory) and one of few such buildings in the downtown area of the city, the Anglican Cathedral Parish House is reminiscent of a type of vicarage common in England during the Victorian era.

The Anglican Cathedral Parish House has historical value because of its association with the Anglican Church (previously the Church of England) in Newfoundland and Labrador from the late 1800s into the late 1900s. Cathedral Parish was part of the greater bishopric of Newfoundland and Bermuda, established in 1839. Through missionary efforts during the later half of the 1800s, the church spread throughout the colony from traditional bases in Harbour Grace, Bonavista, Trinity and St. John's. Despite these expansions, Cathedral Parish remained as a spiritual centre for Anglicans in the region.

The Anglican Cathedral Parish House has environmental value as it is a component of a greater ecclesiastical area in downtown St. John’s. This area is comprised of church properties owned by several denominations and is a recognized feature of the built landscape in the downtown core. In close proximity to the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, the Anglican Cathedral Parish House shares a plot of land with the similarly designed Deanery. They are situated on a high hill and are surrounded by four city streets in the centre of this ecclesiastical area.