[5] Farr was chosen as the architect for the original church and the affairs were progressed by the first minister, William Habens.

Four architects were invited to provide designs for a new building: Farr, Benjamin Mountfort, William Armson and Robert Lawson.

[8] Mountfort was given the requirement of an open preaching space, which he met by choosing an Early French rather than a High Gothic Revival style.

[2] Stylistically, the church shares many design elements with Canterbury Museum, which was also Mountfort's work and which was built in stages starting in 1870.

[2] The new owners undertook significant earthquake strengthening, with the walls internally extended by adding a layer of reinforced concrete.

Ownership later changed to private individuals and the building was used as a wedding chapel for Japanese tourists who wanted to get married in Christchurch.

[14] The former church was damaged in 4 September 2010 Canterbury earthquake and the tower braced with an external steel structure; it was a much photographed item for its decoration with mannequins.

The building suffered further damage by the strong aftershock on Boxing Day of that year that was centred underneath the central city.

Slade blamed that the consenting authorities, the Christchurch City Council and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, were responsible for much of the loss of Christchurch's historic buildings due to their bureaucratic attitudes, which prevented much earthquake strengthening work from going ahead due to it being too intrusive.

[13] Slade, who had spent NZ$500,000 on remedial work prior to the February earthquake, had run out of funds and had reluctantly applied for the building to be demolished.

[15] In March 2013, Christchurch City Council's community, recreation and culture committee voted to give NZ$1 million towards the restoration and strengthening costs.