The Architects of St. Ann's Academy

St. Ann's Academy was a human project erected by the labours and imaginations of a diverse group of British Columbia pioneers. The architects of St. Ann's all led amazing lives and left their own unique contributions to Catholicism, French identity, the lives of children, and the lives of women in British Columbia.

  • Fr. Joseph Michaud, CSV, designed and built St. Andrew's Cathedral on Humboldt St. in 1858, and he provided the plans for the first section of the current St. Ann's convent.
  • Charles Verrehyden executed the construction of the 1871 building.
  • John Teague directed the next addition in 1886 based, at least partly, on Michaud's 1871 design, and he under-saw the transportation of St. Andrew's across Humboldt Street where it was incorporated into the new St. Ann's building.
  • Thomas Hooper designed and built the striking west wing in 1910.
  • Sister Mary Osithe designed and build the St. Ann's Academy gymnasium in 1922.

    • The architects of St. Ann's came to Victoria within wider patterns of migration to British Columbia. The forces that brought these men and women to BC were more than incidental in the construction of St. Ann's because they reveal St. Ann's firm position within a specific BC historical context.

    The architects of St. Ann's Academy illuminate larger themes in British Columbia history.



    St. Ann's was constructed in stages over more than fifty years, and architecture in Victoria changed dramatically during that period. All of the architects of St. Ann's were immediately involved in the transformation of an industry, and their stories reveal the tensions and subtleties within the process of professionalization of architecture on the west coast.