Building Identities: St. George’s Anglican Churches, Kingston, Upper Canada, 1792-1826

Abstract

Churches are articulate visual statements declaring the preoccupations, aspirations and ideologies of their builders. Whether a church is a small, weatherboard structure in a rural parish or a large imposing stone cathedral, its architectural style can tell historians a great deal about the people who built and attended it and the kind of religion they practised. This is particularly evident if we consider St. George’s Anglican Church in Kingston, Upper Canada during the first fifty years of the congregation’s history. The first St. George’s church was built in 1792; what would eventually become St. George’s Cathedral was built in 1826 to meet the needs of an expanding congregation. What is fascinating is how different these churches were, architecturally; it is clear that they were really quite different in terms of the aspirations and assumptions of their respective congregations. However, historians have tended to focus attention on the formal architectural styles of large urban churches and their symbolic importance for participants and observers. Thus, we know a great deal less about the vernacular architecture of small rural churches like the one at Kingston and the meaning that this church had for those who attended it. Certainly a good deal has been written about the St. George’s Church built in 1826. Several articles explore what historians imply is the “real” St. George’s. Moreover, as one of the few neo-classical churches built in the nineteenth century in Upper Canada St. George’s is considered by many historians as the physical embodiment of British conservatism in the province. William Westfall’s insightful analysis of the religious