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St. John’s College traces its roots to 14 October 1820, when Reverend John West arrived in the Red River Settlement and soon started a school for about twenty children north of the forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. Around 1826, his successor Reverend David Thomas Jones established a school later known as the Red River Academy, which educated the children of Hudson’s Bay Company officers. Reverend John Macallum joined it in 1833 and served as Headmaster from 1838 to 1849.
In 1849, David Anderson, the first Bishop of Rupert’s Land, arrived on the day Macallum died and took charge of the school. In 1855 he named it “St. John’s College” and gave it the motto “In Thy Light shall we see Light,” but the demands of his enormous diocese caused the school to close for several years. His successor, Bishop Robert Machray, made re-establishing it a priority, and it reopened on 1 November 1866 under Warden John McLean. Reorganized on the lines of an English public school, modelled largely on Westminster, it continued without interruption from then on.
Planning of a new building for St. John’s College at this site, a four-acre lot on the west side of Main Street at Church Avenue in Winnipeg, began in 1882. An architectural plan from 1883, by local architect brothers Charles Arnold Barber and Earle William Barber, shows a grandiose structure patterned on English colleges; ultimately, only a more modest portion of it was ever built. The 3½-storey brick building—made of bricks manufactured by a nearby brickyard which rented space from the college and paid a portion of its rent in bricks—was completed in 1884 at a cost of some $55,000. It had several classrooms as well as residential space for 20 students.
The boys of the school moved to the new site in 1890, having outgrown their quarters on the riverbank, and in 1912 the College moved into a building on the north side of Church Avenue. In 1920, a new wing was added to the older building, named in honour of Frederick Edmund Marsh “Eric” Hamber, a former Deputy Headmaster with thirty years of service.
In mid-1945, the college moved to a building at 347 Broadway in downtown Winnipeg (later the site of the Monarch Life Building) and the former building was demolished in 1950. An associated annex, built in 1912, was occupied in 1946 by the staff and students of St. Andrew’s College. The college relocated to the Fort Garry campus of the University of Manitoba, into a newly constructed building, in 1958.
Period
Headmaster
1829-1838
David Thomas Jones (c1796-1844)
1838-1849
John Macallum (1806-1849)
1849-1857
David Anderson (1814-1885)
1857-1866
Closed
1866-1873
John McLean (1828-1886)
1873-1904
Robert Machray (1831-1904)
1904-1921
Samuel Pritchard Matheson (1852-1942)
Among the teachers of St. John’s College was Joseph Cooper Iliffe (1913-1937).
Sketch of the St. John’s College (circa 1889)
Source: Souvenir of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Toronto News Company, 1889.
Postcard view of St. John’s College (no date)
Source: Rob McInnes, WP0896
Postcard view of St. John’s College (no date)
Source: Milan Lukes
Chapel inside St. John’s College (early 1940s)
Source: Milan Lukes
Dining room inside St. John’s College (early 1940s)
Source: Milan Lukes
School rink at St. John’s College (early 1940s)
Source: Milan Lukes
Tennis court at St. John’s College (early 1940s)
Source: Milan LukesSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.92200, W97.12840
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: St. John’s College Annex / St. Andrew’s College / Church Block (259 Church Avenue, Winnipeg)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Olympic Rink (480 Charles Street, Winnipeg)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: St. John the Evangelist Chapel (92 Dysart Road, Winnipeg)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Manitoba College / St. Paul’s College (Ellice Avenue, Winnipeg)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Wesley College / University of Winnipeg (505 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg)
Manitoba Organization: St. John’s College
MHS Centennial Organization: University of Manitoba
St. John’s College School. Calendar 1943-1944, 1944-1945, Winnipeg: St. John’s College School, no date.
St. John’s College: Faith and Education in Western Canada by J. M. Bumsted, University of Manitoba Press, 2006.
Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada, 1800-1950 by Robert G. Hill, Toronto.
We thank Nathan Kramer for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Milan Lukes.
Page revised: 18 October 2026
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