St. Anne's Chapel, Gothic Revival chapel in Fredericton, Canada.
St. Anne's Chapel is a hammer-dressed grey sandstone Gothic Revival chapel of ease at Westmorland and George Streets, measuring 74 by 21 feet. It has a nave and a chancel with a carved butternut screen, and its entrance porch has ornate ironwork hinges. The churchyard is enclosed by a low stone wall with a lychgate.
Built between 1846 and 1847 under Bishop John Medley's direction, the chapel served as a temporary worship space while Christ Church Cathedral was being constructed. It marks an important moment in the city's religious development.
The chapel's name comes from its role as a chapel of ease, and locals still call it St. Anne's even after it became Christ Church Parish Church in 1854. Inside, the nave and chancel floors and the reredos carry multicoloured Minton encaustic tiles, while the carved butternut screen, pulpit, altar and open bench pews were made from local wood. The open pews, with no rents charged, were a deliberate break from the usual status-marking seating.
The chapel stands at the corner of Westmorland and George Streets in Fredericton's west end, at 201 Westmorland Street. The 1989 national historic designation covers only the 1847 chapel, not the larger 1962 church beside it, so look for the small sandstone building. The churchyard is enclosed by a low stone wall with a lychgate.
St. Anne's Chapel was the first church in North America built on the principles of the Ecclesiological Society, and Bishop Medley meant it as a model for future parish churches in New Brunswick. Its open bench pews carried no pew rents, which removed a parish income and a mark of status for pew owners.
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