Historic Sites of Manitoba: McDougall Memorial Methodist Church / Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Ivan Suchavsky (939 Main Street, Winnipeg)

Link to:
Clerics | Photos & Coordinates | Sources

This impressive brick church building on north Main Street in Winnipeg, named for early Methodist missionery George M. McDougall, was designed by local architect Edward Lowery and constructed in 1891 by Phillip Burnett and James Henry Neil. Its sanctuary has mezzanines on three sides. After the unification of Methodist, Congregational, and Presbyterian faiths in Canada, in 1925, the United church was sold five years later to a group of immigrants from the region of Bukovina in Western Ukraine. The building’s interior and exterior were renovated to meet the requirements of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. An iconostatis was built by George Billas and the first icons were painted by Hnat Sych. Three domes were added in 1952. The iconostatis was repainted and the icons were replaced in 1966, the new icons being done by Mrs. E. Stachursky.

For a large part of its history, it was part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America but it came under the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada when the UOCC was canonically placed under the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Clerics (McDougall Memorial)

Period	Cleric
?-?	John Semmens (1850-1921)
?-?	William “Bill” Ivens (1878-1958)
c1908	Rev. Hiram Hull

Clerics (St. Ivan Suchavsky)

Among the clerics was John Alexander Melnyk.

Photos & Coordinates

McDougall Memorial Methodist Church (circa 1903) Source: An Illustrated Souvenir of Winnipeg The former McDougall Memorial Methodist Church (November 2015) Source: George Penner Interior of the former McDougall Memorial Methodist Church (November 2015) Source: George Penner Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.91108, W97.13244 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Memorable Manitobans: George Millward McDougall (c1820-1876)

Sources:

“James H. Neil, noted builder here, is dead,” Winnipeg Tribune, 21 December 1927, page 15.

A Study of the Church Buildings in Manitoba of the Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian and United Churches of Canada by Neil Bingham, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1987, 289 pages.

Our History, The Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Ivan Suchavsky.

We thank Robert Hill for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough, George Penner, and Sterling Demchinsky.

Page revised: 19 February 2022

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