St. James Anglican Church

About

St. James' Anglican Church (Saint James Parish of Vancouver, BC) is a unique church building in the Diocese of New Westminster of the Anglican Church of Canada located at the north-east corner of East Cordova Street and Gore Avenue in the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada's Downtown Eastside district of the Strathcona neighbourhood. The Parish boundaries are Burrard Inlet on the north, Cambie Street on the west, Clarke Drive on the East and a portion of False Creek and Terminal Avenue on the south.

The first building was completed in the spring of 1881 on Alexander Street (west of Main Street) in the Township of Granville (aka Gastown), Burrard Inlet to the north west of the present site and was sponsored by Captain James Raymur, the manager of Hastings Mill. Granville was renamed Vancouver when the town was incorporated as a city on April 6, 1886. Before being moved to the second site by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to make way for their main rail line, this building burned down in the Great Vancouver Fire of June 13, 1886.

The heat of the fire melted the church bell into a puddle that was eventually put on display at the Museum of Vancouver. The second building was...