St. Ann's Academy, School building in Victoria, Canada.
St. Ann's Academy is a school building in Victoria with a main structure extending along Humboldt Street. The interior features a chapel with stained glass windows and a historic pipe organ, as well as exhibition spaces and event rooms.
The Sisters of St. Ann, a congregation from Lachine, Quebec, built the academy; its chapel, designed by Father Joseph Michaud, was Victoria's original St. Andrew's Cathedral, moved in 1886. A convent was added west of the academy in 1887 and another behind it in 1910. The Sisters closed the school in 1973 and sold it to British Columbia; after a full interior rebuild it reopened in 1997.
The restored chapel displays religious artworks and traditional French-Canadian architectural elements that remain visible today. Visitors can experience the craftsmanship and spiritual character of the space while exploring.
The chapel, parlours and infirmary form an interpretive centre restored to 1920s decor, while the auditorium at the far end of the building hosts public lectures and concerts. The chapel and the adjacent Novitiate Garden are used for weddings and other functions. The annex site behind the main building was cleared in 2001 and now merges the grounds with Beacon Hill Park.
The Sisters of Saint Ann kept two cemeteries on the grounds; in 1908 a plot was opened at Ross Bay Cemetery, and after the Academy closed the first sisters were exhumed and reinterred there. Many stained glass windows were vandalized while the building stood empty and had to be rebuilt. The annex behind the main building, once used by the Victoria Conservatory of Music, was demolished on September 11, 2001, and its site became green space merging the grounds with Beacon Hill Park.
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