St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church

Here's a building whose lofty towers and turrets always give the Victoria Skyline a particular flavor. It's St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church on Douglas Street. It's a relic of Victoria's early days in the 19th century when churches were still of central social importance. Of course, more people lived downtown those days too so churches were built near what in those days were residential areas. Nowadays this church's neighbors are shops and businesses.

St Andrew's Presbyterian Church

I mentioned in a recent post that in Victoria I sometimes feel I'm walking around in a large theme park. I think this comes from childhood Saturday afternoons "when you wish upon a star..." seeing Tinkerbell flying around those fabulously romantic Disney spires. A hint of all that comes back when I look at the Victoria skyline in the header photo above and see, on the right, those silvery spires against the sky. But these are not from Uncle Walt. These spires, an example of Castellated Scottish Baronial Style archtecture, are atop St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, built in 1890 in downtown Victoria on the corner of Douglas and Courtenay Streets.