In 1936, the Anglican community acquired a pipe organ built by the famed Casavant Brothers of Saint-Hyacinthe. The church’s history from the initial land purchase in 1907 until 1982 was painstakingly documented in the book As It Happened—A History of the Parish of Saint-Columba 1907–1982. In 1969, St. Columba’s welcomed Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, later to become Pope John Paul II. Though of modest design, St. Columba’s features a nave with exposed wood beams, woodwork, and stained glass in the chancel.

In September 2013, the diocese sold the property to a private corporation, which immediately submitted a project to demolish the church and build seven housing units. Neighbourhood residents rallied to save St. Columba’s, with 224 people signing a register in March 2016 to force a referendum (166 signatures were required). In April 2016, Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Borough Council announced the withdrawal of the developer’s project.

Since 2005, the church has been on the list of buildings of exceptional heritage and architectural interest in the City of Montréal Master Plan for CDN-NDG Borough; in January 2016, Montréal Municipal Council enacted a bylaw to remove it from the list and allow the developer’s project to proceed. With that project now abandoned, efforts must be made to ensure that St. Columba’s and the parish hall are restored to the list and protected from any future threat of demolition.

The church closed in 2012, and during the past three years no maintenance or repair work has been performed by the owner, since they had planned to demolish it. A technical assessment of the building in 2015 identified urgent repairs and work required within five years to restore the church to its proper condition. The owner must rapidly proceed with this work to reverse the maintenance deficit accumulated over the past three years.

The owner removed the 10 stained-glass windows from the church in December 2015 without authorization, even before the referendum process was set in motion. In spite of multiple warnings and notices of violation issued by the borough (at the behest of the citizens’ group formed to save the church), the stained glass has not been reinstalled, and the matter is now before the courts. To replace the stained glass, the owner installed simple plywood panels, which are neither airtight nor waterproof, disfigure the façade and the neighbourhood streetscape, and are surely contributing to deterioration of the building interior. Two of the old stained-glass windows are at the Canadian Centre for the Great War, and the eight others are in the basement of the neighbouring St. Ansgar parish church. Some of the stained glass was damaged upon removal. The citizen’s group has been regularly asking the borough council what it plans to do to require the owner to replace the plywood panels with new stained glass or properly sealed windows, so far to no avail.St. Columba Anglican Church and Parish Hall make up an architectural ensemble that was the subject of a statement of heritage value in April 2014. Built in 1920, the church stands as a witness to the history and intensive development of this area of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in the early decades of the 20th century. It welcomed a number of congregations, notably from the Polish and Korean communities. The parish hall, completed in 1928 and later used as a community centre, played a significant social role in the neighbourhood.