St. Anne's Anglican Church National Historic Site of Canada

St. Anne’s Anglican Church was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1996 because:

• it contains a remarkable cycle of paintings, executed in 1923, by ten prominent artists, including three members of the Group of Seven, under the supervision of J.E.H. MacDonald;
• its cycle of paintings belongs to the revival of mural decoration that emerged in the last quarter of the 19th century and is a manifestation of the Arts and Crafts movement which sought to ally architecture with the sister arts of painting and sculpture;
• the St Anne’s decorative cycle draws upon the motifs, colours and the artistic conventions of Byzantine art, and is integral to the church’s architectural style.

In 1923 J.E.H. MacDonald, having accepted a commission to paint and decorate St. Anne’s, brought in nine more artists including two other members of the Group of Seven, Fred Varley and Frank Carmichael, along with an architect, William Rae, who co-directed the decoration of the interior. In keeping with the design of the building, MacDonald drew on the motifs, colours and artistic conventions of Byzantine artistic traditions, adapting their character to reflect a contemporary Canadian setting.

Lawrence Skey, rector from 1902 to 1933, was the project’s motivating force and was directly involved with the original decision to build in a Byzantine style. This reflected his support for an ecumenical movement that advocated unification with other Protestant denominations. Architect W. Ford Howland’s design was intended to evoke the early Byzantine period, before the Christian church had split into its subsequent numerous denominations. Howland was an associate with Burke and Horwood, a Toronto architectural firm known for their designs of Protestant churches. The art and architecture of St. Anne’s Anglican Church illustrates a distinctive period in Anglican Church history.