St. Paul's Anglican Church

Historic St. Paul's on the Grand Parade

St. Paul's is the old­est build­ing in Hal­i­fax and the old­est exist­ing Protes­tant place of wor­ship in Canada. Founded by procla­ma­tion of King George II in 1749, the build­ing was erected in the sum­mer of 1750. On Sep­tem­ber 2, 1750 the Rev­erend William Tutty held the first ser­vice inside what was, accord­ing to Mr. Tutty, "not com­pletely fit­ted up". The archi­tec­tural plans were based on St. Peter's Church, Vere Street, Lon­don which was designed in 1722 by James Gibbs, a pupil of Sir Christo­pher Wren. The resem­blance between the two churches is remark­able despite the addi­tion of St. Paul's vestibule and steeple, 1812, the side wings, 1868, and the chan­cel, 1872. The tim­bers of St. Paul's were cut in Saco, Maine and shipped to Hal­i­fax. Most of the mate­ri­als includ­ing the bricks to line the walls were made locally. Over 2½ cen­turies later, the orig­i­nal wooden struc­ture remains as sound as the day it was built. Charles Inglis, first over­seas Bishop of the Church of Eng­land, arrived in 1787 mak­ing St. Paul's his cathe­dral. Until the con­struc­tion of a gar­ri­son chapel in 1844, St. Paul's was also the first gar­ri­son church in Hal­i­fax.

• free
• history

Address

1749 Argyle St

Getting there

across the street from the Old Burial Grounds

Hours

open to the pub­lic for self-directed vis­its from 9AM-4:30PM

Price

Free

Website

stpaulshalifax.org (opens in a new tab)