Corpus of Percy Bacon & Brothers

Former St Matthew's Church, Quebec City: Chancel Screen.
Photo Marie D Martel.
CC BY-SA 4.0 (Int) licence.

Former St Matthew's Church, Quebec City: Chancel Screen.
Photo Marie D Martel.
CC BY-SA 4.0 (Int) licence.

The chancel screen.
Photo: Marie D Martel. CC BY-SA 4.0 (Int) licence.

Posted 01 August 2025.

St Matthew's Church was built in the 1870's, replacing a stone chapel built in 1849. That, in turn, replaced an earlier wooden chapel known as St Matthew's Chapel built in the late 18th century on Rue Saint-Jean to serve the growing Anglican population of the city. That wooden edifice was consumed by fire in 1845.

Percy Bacon was commissioned to design the oak chancel screen. However, it is not certain when it was installed. although it is clear from a photograph on the Ville de Québec website that it post dates 1900. Neither is it certain whether the screen was made in Percy Bacon's workshop in London, or whether the design was sub-contracted.

In 1979 due to the dwindling congregation and the cost of maintaining the church, the City of Québec was asked to take charge of both St Matthew's and its graveyard, which it duly did for the token sum of one dollar. It was then converted to a municipal library, though a great deal of the furnishings such as the font, pulpit, oak screen, stained glass, and reredos were retained.¹ The building was renamed in honour of the local author Claire Martin (pen name of Claire Montreuil) who died in 2014.

A colour photo of the oak screen is available via Google Maps along with interior and exterior views.

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1. Information for this entry has been obtained from the Ville de Québec website.