Under the direction of Bishop Taché, this would become the third church built on this site. The Archbishop's Palace can be discerned on the left. The picture was taken in the year 1900.
As so many of the grave markers     

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were made of wood, over time, they all disintegrated and to make matters worst, records were lost in the 1860 fire. Today, no wood marker from that era remains.

The 1863 stone church with the steeple and bells being installed in 1883.


Most of the french roman catholic churches built in the mid and late 1800's and in the early 1900's were of this type, and many had mezzanine seating. The countryside in the Province of Québec as well as in Manitoba and Saskatchewan has hundreds of these still being used today. The norm was to build the church at the highest point in the villages, and this one was no exception. The stained glass windows were standard.

Sadly, the vibrations from the bells caused major cracks in the brick walls to form after dozens of years of continual usage.

By looking closely at both the above sketch and the photo, we find out that this was the location of the ferry, and not where Provencher Bridge is today as it would seem logical.
Though the sketch is clearly the early settlement, the Grey Nuns' Convent (1845) is seen, yet either the stone church of 1839, or the one of 1863 is absent.

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Could this have been done after the 1860 fire, but before the new 1863 church? A temporary chapel maybe? No... The 1863 church without the bells. By 1870, the cathedral still didn't have the steeple... It was completed, with bells installed, in 1883.

Taché had to build everything anew, indeed, after the disaster of 1860. In December of that year, both the old church with the "turrets twain" erected by Bishop Provencher and the Bishopric had been razed by fire, through the imprudence of domestics preparing candles for Christmas. The new church was opened in 1863. When reporting the news, the Nor' Wester added: "We understand that the masons are busy preparing stone for the Bishop's palace . . . The more good buildings, the better for the Settlement as a whole, and we hope the palace may be finished by All Saints' Day, next year."
The word "palace", which has been used occasionally until recent times, can apply here only as a euphemism or in reference to ancient European traditions.
The main work of the new church having been completed by the fall of 1863, therefore, the building of the home was pushed ahead in 1864 and made habitable in April of the following year. Except for the top storey whose alterations were probably made when a brick building was added, around 1900, its appearance is the same as one hundred years ago when it could be seen from Fort Garry, the fortress then standing across the river.
More striking than the details of its construction and architecture are the   

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troubles and hardships of the times from which it proceeds. The 1860's had seen a return of proverbial calamities in Red River - floods and grasshoppers.  In the year 1864, gangs of Sioux Indians were wandering about the Settlement and could well have raided the "palace" as they did farms at Headingley and White Horse Plain. At the beginning of that year, about five hundred of them had taken refuge at Red River. Civil War was then raging in the United States and following the famous Sioux massacre of 1862 in Minnesota many sought escape north of the international boundary.
The Bishopric found itself in the midst of the disturbances of 1869-70 which resulted in the creation of the province of Manitoba. Among the few incidents of a military nature in which it was involved, suffice it to mention here one found in the 'Chronicles of the Grey Nuns.' Relating the movements of the "Portage party," in mid-February 1870, Sister Curran wrote: "They came warning us that the English are to come at night and take over the Cathedral and the Bishop's House to make up a fortified place for themselves ... Forty soldiers were mounting guard at the House and horsemen were riding around it in all directions ..."

Manitoba Historical Society
Manitoba Pageant, Winter 1965, Volume 10, Number 2
A Centennial House
By Rossel Vien

One has to appreciate the year and the set-up needed to create such a print; no doubt this included many days of preparations and weeks of tedious work. What looks like debris on avenue Taché (parallel to the river) is actually many horse and buggies in front of the cathedral, and also on boulevard Provencher which crosses Taché. Similar to an artist's scribbled signature, bottom right, is a York Boat.

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The steamboat could be the Selkirk. In the middle of the block on Taché, the building with a central steeple is the old Collège de Saint Boniface built in 1855 and eventually taken down. The new Collège, top right, built in 1880, and thereafter enlarged, burned in the winter of 1922 taking ten lives. It was rebuilt on avenue de la Cathédrale, behind the church. [Overview]

In 1840, a set of three bells destined for the cathedral in St. Boniface was cast by Mears of Whitechapel, London, England, founders of the Big Ben chimes. Later in the year, and weighing 1600 lbs, the bells were shipped to the mission and affixed upon the church.
As fire struck the church in 1860, the bells were severely damaged, but not beyond repair. The year after, in 1861, these bells were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to England for recasting. After this was done, and returning to Canada, the ship was blown off course and it nearly foundered and had to be put in St. John's, Newfoundland. The bells were recovered and then shipped via lakes

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and rivers to Duluth, Minnesota. Impractical and too expensive to bring the bells back via ox cart, they were re-shipped to England, then brought forth to St. Boniface, this time through the Hudson Bay. They arrived at Christmas, 1864 by sleigh. On Mgr Taché's orders, no one would hear the bells until they were fully paid. People of all faiths contributed and the chimes played on that Christmas Eve though the steeple had not yet been built.
In 1908, the bells were transplanted to the new basilica.
Some sixty years later, the original bells would be sadly destroyed in the 1968 fire.

The bells shown are 7-tone English bells of that era. These and similar chimes were shipped all over the world in the 1800's.
English bell ringing is unique because the bells rotate through a full circle. Here they are shown at rest, where they are held by a mechanism which allows the bell ringers to release the ropes and have a rest. They are left in the "mouth down" position after the ringing session has finished.