St. Andrew's Cathedral Ceremony & Cornerstone

The cornerstone at St. Andrew's Cathedral played a role in the structural integrity of the building and is still solid today.

On Sunday October 5th, 1890, Victoria’s Victorian’s laid the cornerstone for St. Andrew’s Cathedral at its current location. The weather cleared and the skies were blue “ushering in the day whose proceedings are expected to have such an influence on the religious future of the Pacific Coast.” In preparation for the ceremony, the building frame and other signs of construction “that it had been necessary to leave on the ground” were covered or otherwise hidden from view. The equipment used for laying the cornerstone and the skeleton frame of the building was shrouded in decorations suited to a highly religious catholic ceremony. According to the Victoria Daily Colonist: “The character of the service … was impressive alike upon the Protestants and Catholics.”

Actually placed inside the cornerstone, the time capsule is a copper manuscript box containing “the names of the Pope, Her Majesty the Queen, and the Governor-General, a list of subscribers names and the amount subscribed up to the present date, specimens of the coinage of the Dominion, and copies of The Colonist and Times containing an account of the proceedings [sic].”

These contents represent the way that Victoria’s Victorians wanted to see themselves: emphasizing influence, being able to afford to donate to such an ambitious project; literacy and education; but also as monuments.

The Victoria Daily Colonist referred to Jesus Christ as “the chief cornerstone in all the plans of God” and Lemmens, with the others that paid for the building of St. Andrew’s Cathedral felt they were playing an integral part to the planning of the colony.

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