City of Regina Archives Photograph Collection, CORA-RPL-A-372

Title: Bird's-eye View of Regina's Downtown
Date: 1905
Retrieval Number: CORA-RPL-A-372
Extent: 1 B&W Print; 14 cm x 18.5 cm
Scope and Content Note: Regina 's downtown. Metropolitan Church is on left middle, just under construction.
Access Restrictions: None
Photographer: Mrs. E.R. Morrison
Parent fonds/collection: RPL Photograph Collection
Historical Note: The Metropolitan Methodist Church was designed by Darling and Pearson of Toronto. It cost over $100,000 when it was built in 1906-1907. Like so many downtown buildings, it was destroyed by the cyclone of 1912 and rebuilt within a year. The revised design was created by Francis Portnall and James H. Puntin. In 1925, the United Church of Canada was formed when the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches merged. This meant that there were two United churches within a block of one another in downtown Regina ! Eventually this proved too costly, and the two congregations merged in 1951 to form the Knox-Metropolitan United Church , which was housed in the old Metropolitan Methodist Church building. The building features the Darke Memorial Chimes, an impressive set of church bells donated by F.N. Darke in memory of his son Clifford, who died in an automobile accident in 1926.