St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, St. John’s and a Historic Site of National Importance Celebrating 180 Years
In 1843, His Excellency Sir John Harvey granted the firing grounds of Fort Townsend for the purpose of building a Church to newly arrived immigrants from Scotland. While very small in number, compared to the English and Irish immigrants that had already settled in St. John’s, these Lowland Scots by 1893 were building their 4th Presbyterian Church “The Kirk” and were making a significant contribution to the town’s social, cultural, economic, political, educational and spiritual development.
John Stewart (Greenock, Scotland), who ran the Greenock based Rennie Stewart Firm in St. John ‘s and a prominent leader in the St. John’s commercial establishment along with politician and physician Dr. Samuel Carson (Edinburgh, Scotland) were among those who signed the land grant on behalf of the congregation in 1843. John Stewart was also a leader in the Newfoundland Scottish Society, a Trustee of St. Andrew’s Church and later became the Clerk of the Government’s Executive Council.
Today “The Kirk”, a Scottish Gothic designed church on Queens Road, is recognized as a Provincial Historic landmark built of bricks and limestone from Scotland. It is furnished with prestigious Ballantine Scottish Stained Glass windows made in Edinburgh. James Ballantine is recognized as Scotland’s most influential stained-glass maker with collections at Edinburgh Castle, the Scotts and Wallace Monument Sites and at the “0lde Kirk”, St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. St. Andrew’s collection is considered one of the finest Ballantine collections in the world. The current Church was designed by architects Wills, Pearson and Greene from the United Kingdom. John Pearson is now
considered one of Canada’s most important historic architects and he went on to design both the Centre Block and Peace Tower for the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa.
This Scottish designed Gothic- styled Church has stood watch over old St. John’s for 130 years. It’s prominent Victorian tower is now considered one of the tallest remaining masonry Church towers in Atlantic Canada. In 2008, St. Andrew’s became part of the prestigious St. John’s Ecclesiastical District National Historic Site of Canada for the role the congregation played in developing St. John’s and Newfoundland.
Other noteworthy members of this congregation include Lady Susanna Thorburn who led the first parade for women’s right to vote in St. John’s. Reverend Moses Harvey a well loved minister and a writer of over 300 promotional articles about Newfoundland for papers in the US, Canada and Europe. Reverend Harvey also promoted fishery conservation and brought the giant squid species to the attention of the world.
Industrialist and philanthropist Sir Robert Reid and politicians and businessmen like the Honourable James Baird, the Honourable Moses Munroe and his nephew Prime Minister Walter Munro and Prime Minister Robert Thorburn were members. Other business families associated with St. Andrew’s include the McMurdo’s and Scottish merchants like Walter Baine Grieve, who founded the Baine Johnston Company in St. John’s, the Templeton’s, the Crawford’s, the Elton’s, the Butt’s and the McKinley’s. St. Andrew’s members have also include early social reformers like Margaret Peace (Greenock) who championed the need for “temperance” and Amelia Crawford Reid (Airth) who showed extensive leadership in the life of the Church. Businessman Patrick Tasker (Greenock) who established the City’s first commercial bank, the Union Bank, and the 1st Masonic Lodge in St. John’s also attended “The Kirk”.
St. Andrew’s is the memorial home of the Newfoundland Highlanders founded by member Victor Gordon who was Newfoundland’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. The Newfoundland Highlanders were one of the 4 church brigades that made up 50% of the First 500 to sign up for the Great War.
These Scottish immigrants also brought the St. Andrew’s Society, the St. Andrew’s Lady Society, the West End Presbyterian Ladies Aid, the St. Andrew’s Ball, the Midnight Christmas Eve Candle Light Carol Service, Bobbie Burns Night, the 1st. Andrew’s Boy Scouts, Scottish dancing and bagpipe lessons to St. John’s. This year the Bagpipe Band is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary.
The 180 Anniversary service to celebrate the establishment of St. Andrew’s was held December 3rd.