page_title: Regina's historic buildings and precincts
section_title: Parish and congregational churches
hierarchical_section_title: Regina's historic buildings and precincts / Downtown and West End ("Cathedral Area") churches / Parish and congregational churches
caption_attribution_description: English: Westminster Presbyterian (later United) Church
context_page_description: Many historically significant buildings in Regina, Saskatchewan were lost during the period 1945 through approximately 1970 when the urge to "modernize" overtook developers' and city planners' sense of history and heritage. The old warehouse district to the north of the old CPR tracks was Regina's original commercial raison d'être once Lieutenant-Governor Edgar Dewdney had established the site of his considerable landholdings as the Territorial Capital. With the significant conversion of shipping of commercial goods from train to truck and cancellation of passenger service on the railway, the Warehouse District immediately adjacent to the train line has ceased to be exclusively industrial in character. Some areas of the Warehouse District have been transformed into a shopping, entertainment and residential precinct.
context_section_description: First Baptist Church on the corner of Victoria Avenue and Lorne Street, was opened in 1911 and its gold organ pipes first heard in 1912. The church was renowned for its large domed ceiling and chandelier. The Institute for stained glass in Canada has documented the stained glass at First Baptist Church. The 1912 Regina "Cyclone" severely damaged the church but it was soon restored. Unlike other imposing church buildings in downtown Regina and the East End, First Baptist survives as a major landmark.
  Knox-Metropolitan United Church is the current manifestation of Presbyterian and Methodist congregations that date back to 1885. "The original Knox Church was constructed in 1885 at Scarth Street and 11th Avenue. The Presbyterian congregation sold the site to the Dominion Government for their new post office and erected a new Knox Presbyterian Church at 12th Avenue and Lorne Street in 1905." Knox and Metropolitan churches were destroyed by the "Cyclone"; both were soon rebuilt. Knox Presbyterian, on 12th Avenue across from Victoria Park on the north side, was next door to the YMCA. Both were destroyed by the Regina Cyclone of 1912 and immediately rebuilt. In 1951 the two congregations of the now-United Church of Canada merged and occupied the Metropolitan building with Knox being demolished. Many of Knox's congregation had dissented from the 1925 church union, wishing to remain Presbyterian rather than become United Church, and adjourned to the new First (non-concurring or continuing) Presbyterian Church on Albert Street, built in 1926; more members of Knox's congregation had relocated to the new post-World War II residential subdivision of Lakeview, south of Wascana Creek and west of Albert Street, and when Knox United was demolished its impressive pipe organ was moved to Lakeview United Church. Knox-Met is the major venue for downtown choral concerts, organ recitals and the annual Kiwanis Carol Festival.
  Like First Baptist and Westminster United, Knox-Met has its interior arranged in the Akron Plan, a square auditorium the pews arranged in a fan shape radiating out from the pulpit and portable communion table, making it ideal for such uses. The Darke Memorial Chimes are heard every Sunday morning and on other special occasions. The church has a large 3-manual Casavant Frères organ, the gift of Isabel Willoughby. Carmichael United Church in the East End, on the periphery of the central business district, was a congregation formed out of the previous Wesley Methodist and Carmichael Presbyterian churches in the immediate vicinity. Once one of Regina's most vibrant United Church congregations and the first church to have its services broadcast by radio, it closed its doors in June 1995 and the building was demolished in 1996. It had a substantial Casavant Frères organ and fine chancel furniture which has now been resumed by the originally Methodist and then United Church-affiliated University of Regina for use in convocation ceremonies.
  Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church at 2049 Scarth Street Scarth Street was built in 1905 as St Mary's, replacing an earlier Catholic parish church on a side street just north of Victoria park. It was renamed "Blessed Sacrament" in 1935 when the "Saint Mary" patronage was transferred to a new parish in Germantown. It replaced the original St Mary's Roman Catholic parish church to the north of what was then Victoria Square.
  St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, built in 1894 and the oldest church building in the city still in use, is a modest parish church on the periphery of the central business district whose parish dates from 1883. It has been the designated cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Qu'Appelle, comprising most of Southern Saskatchewan, since 1944 when it supplanted the original pro-cathedral of St Peter's in the eponymous town of Qu'Appelle. It was then assumed that St. Paul's would remain pro-cathedral temporarily and that plans would be fulfilled to build a substantial cathedral at the corner of College Avenue and Broad Street: the site remains obvious, with hedges planted abo
caption: Westminster Presbyterian, later United, Church on 13th Avenue, immediately east of Holy Rosary Cathedral
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