Audio transcript​

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1926 was quite a year for Winnipeg! Just one month before The Bay opened, the cornerstone for the spectacular church across the road was laid. All Saints Anglican Church was dedicated 3 months later.

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But its story doesn’t begin in 1926.

In 1884, when this was wild prairie, the original All Saint’s Anglican Church was built on almost the same site. And it was a beauty, too! It was Gothic in design and big enough to hold 450 people. But it was built for a very serious purpose.

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England had discovered that early settlers were meeting to pray on their own and were straying a little from Anglican norm. Traditional services weren’t so traditional anymore. All Saints Anglican of 1884 was built to bring parishioners back to a more formal style of worship.

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Change isn’t always appreciated and not everyone was excited about this new church. A week after the first service was held this appeared in a Winnipeg paper: “A bed quilt or something of the sort is to be gambled for, the proceeds of the swindle to go to the church. All Saints is improperly named, it should be called All Sinners. To expect true Christianity in a fashionable church seems as absurd as to expect to find decency in a monkey house.”

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Despite rumblings, the church flourished and was rebuilt in 1926. A Parish Hall was added in 1964 and in 2017, All Saints Anglican was declared a heritage building.

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Ready for another surprise? Let's wander over to that little park just across Broadway.