The Basilica Recreation Centre — Befimz and After

View of Richmond Street, where the Basilica Recreation Centre was built. On the corner is the customs building, which still stands. Next were the old YMCA and Queen Square Presbyterian Church, which later became the Holy Name Hall. (Courtesy of Prince Edward Island Public Archives and Records Office, Accession number 3218/ 12.)

The Queen Square Presbyterian Church was opened in 1860. Although there had been a Presbyterian preaching station in Charlottetown as early as 1849, it was not until 1856 that the Presbytery of Pictou and P.E.|. constituted the Queen Square congregation. At that time, the old Temperance Hall on the northeast corner of Prince and Grafton was rented for services by various Presbyterian ministers. In 1860, a new church opened on Richmond Street. In 1913, the congregation relocated to the site of their new brick church on the northwest corner of Prince and Grafton Street, which was dedicated on May 13th of that year. Because of the great fire which destroyed the cathedral in 1913, the Richmond Street Presbyterian Church was used by St. Dunstan’s Catholic Church until the new cathedral was completed in 1919, at which time it became the Holy Name Hall.