Holy Trinity was founded in 1867, predating the founding of Winnipeg. As the region boomed with the arrival of settlers in the Red River Valley and then the advent of the railroad, the church outgrew three different locations before settling on a vacant lot and Donald Street and Graham Avenue, then on the outskirts of the town. The church hired Charles H. Wheeler, a young architect newly arrived in Canada from Britain, to design its building.[1] The church was dedicated on August 4, 1884, by Archbishop Robert Machray.[2]
In 1989, a geological survey found the church's foundation needed total replacement.[6] The following year, the church was designated a National Historic Site for its well-preserved expression of Victorian Gothic church design, interior woodwork and use of Gothic decorative motifs.[7] However, no work was done on the foundation, and by 2024, the church reached such a state of disrepair that the estimates had climbed to $7 million and the building was on the brink of structural collapse or condemnation. Bishop Geoffrey Woodcroft authorized the church to explore a sale or redevelopment opportunity.[8] The church had also declined in attendance, with 30 to 60 people worshiping each week in a building designed to seat 800.[9] In April 2025, Holy Trinity and the diocese signed a memorandum with Winnipeg's downtown development agency and an architectural firm to support the church's restoration, beginning with a rehabilitation study that would focus on designing a new foundation for the troubled structure.[10]
Architecture
Exterior
Wheeler designed the church in a High Victorian Gothic style. The church is built of rusticatedTyndall limestone.[7] At the time of its completion, the Manitoba Free Press called it "as fine a specimen of pure Gothic architecture as to be found on this continent."[1]
The church is topped by a steeply pitched double hammerbeam roof in which one set of hammerbeams rests atop another, expanding the width of the nave but creating a more delicate roof structure.[1] Buttresses below the roofline are capped with turrets.[7]Dripstones above each door feature carved human faces.[7]
Interior
The interior of the church, looking toward the chancel, sketched c. 1889.
The church is laid out in an irregular cruciform outline.[7] Instead of a traditional clerestory, Wheeler designed a row of high dormer stained-glass windows in the roof in addition to larger windows along the walls.[1] Each clerestory window features trefoil tracery symbolising the Trinity; Tracery is more elaborate in the large west window and the east window in the chancel. The chancel features a segmented, arched wooden ceiling in wood and is separated from the nave by a wooden rood screen.[7] Overall, 26 stained glass windows adorn the church.[11]
At some point, the church's west entrance on Donald Street was sealed, with access to the nave now being routed through the adjacent parish hall. However, according to the Canadian Directory of Federal Heritage Designations, "[w]ith most of its original layout and furnishings intact, the church interior has a remarkable integrity, which has been supported by a long-term regime of maintenance and care."[7]
The church includes two bronze plaques memorialising members of the Fort Garry Horse who died during World Wars I and II, as well as plaques honouring other parishioners who died in combat during the wars.[3] Music is provided by a four manual pipe organ from the Canadian Pipe Organ Company with more than 4,000 pipes and 67 stops.[11] An earlier instrument was two-manual, 24-stop organ from S. R. Warren & Son installed in 1878 and enlarged when the church was opened in 1884.[2]
Incomplete bell tower
Wheeler's original design 1883 design for Holy Trinity included a 56.7-meter bell tower that was never completed.
Wheeler's original plans called for a 56.7 metres (186ft) bell tower that was not completed due to lack of funds.[12]:4–5 A smaller belfry was built where the tower was planned, and a 706 kilograms (1,556lb) bell was placed there in 1887.[11][13]
Parish hall
The church's south entrance.
In the 1890s, the church erected a two-storey parish hall that blocked the east window at the rear of the chancel. A future extension provided space for a gymnasium, assembly hall, choir room, offices, Sunday school, library, bookshop and kitchen. In the 1960s, the parish hall was replaced by a modernist one-storey structure that allowed light to enter through the chancel window. Despite the differences in design, the new hall was faced with Tyndall stone to match the 1884 church.[11]
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