Christ Church Registered Heritage Structure

Christ Church was designated a Registered Heritage Structure because it is representative of the architecture of an early-19th-century outport village. This type of architecture is rarely seen today in a modern urban center. Indeed, the village of Quidi Vidi in which Christ Church is located, is rapidly being encroached upon by urban developments, and this type of tiny fishing village is quickly being erased from Newfoundland landscapes.

The heritage value of this site resides in its design, form and materials. Christ Church was opened in 1842 as a chapel of ease for St. Thomas’ Anglican Church in St. John’s. Its original design by James Purcell, an architect and builder, was based on a cruciform plan with Gothic Revival detailing, an architectural form and vocabulary favoured by the Anglican Church from the mid 19th-century to the beginning of the 20th century. Christ Church was modified by a series of additions in the 19th and 20th centuries, including the addition of a bell tower in 1890. In its wood construction, scale, plan and evolution, it is consistent with churches constructed across the island of Newfoundland in outport communities.