Knox Church has watched over Winnipeg’s Central Park for over a century.

Built between 1914-1918, the towering Gothic Revival style structure features a large crenellated tower that looms over the park below. At the time, Central Park and surrounding area was a highly desirable area to live in Winnipeg.

Knox Church, originally a Presbyterian sect, selected a plot of land along Edmonton Street in 1913. This was the fourth church built for the congregation, which had been steadily growing since their first church opened in 1872. Construction started in 1914 and the J.H.G. Russell design completed in 1918, delayed due to material and labour shortages caused by the First World War.

In 1917, the new Knox Church finally opened. Like other Gothic Revival structures, the Knox Church facade is covered in ornate decorative elements and an entrance framed by two towers. Buttresses marked the tower’s corners, though today one is missing. In 2010, lightning knocked a buttress off the southeast tower sending it flying into Central Park.

Little of the interior has changed, with the exception of a new pipe organ installed in 1974. Through interfaith and interdenominational programs, Knox Church remains a landmark of the Central Park neighbourhood.