In 1857, when gold was discovered along the Fraser River, thousands of men and their families poured into the region through the tiny port of Fort Victoria. Earlier that same year, Roman Catholic Bishop Modeste Demers, whose Episcopal territory stretched from the Rockies to the Pacific, and from the Columbia River to the North Pole, had journeyed to Quebec to appeal for help in his missionary work among the Aboriginal peoples, settlers and Hudson's Bay Company personnel. There he met with the Sisters of St. Ann, a congregation dedicated to the education of rural boys and girls at a time of high illiteracy in Quebec. All forty-five volunteered to "go west," but only four could be chosen. All were from Quebec and for them Canada's West Coast was like a foreign country. From this humble beginning, St. Ann's Academy grew to become one of the largest, best-equipped educational institutions in the region. For more than one hundred years, the Academy was the west coast headquarters of the pioneering sisters. Though declining enrollment and high costs forced them to close the Academy in 1973, the Sisters of St. Ann continue their ministry. The central section of St. Ann's Academy, constructed in 1871, was the first four-storey building in Victoria. Designed by Joseph Michaud, C.S.V., and built in red brick by Charles Vereyben. By 1886, the Academy had expanded again with the "east block," built by John Teague in harmony with the original Michaud scheme. The Acadamy's remarkable Chapel, also added in 1886, was originally built in 1858 by Father Michaud to serve as Victoria's first Roman Catholic cathedral. The third and final section of the Academy, "the west wing" was designed and built by Thomas Hooper in1910. Unlike the earlier sections, Hooper's wing included a fifth storey topped by a mansard roof with dormer windows. This combination of architectural styles into the Academy over its thirty-nine year construction period reflects the influence of Renaissance Revival, Baroque Revival and Second Empire, as well as the traditional building practices of rural Quebec. In 1996 the Provincial Government decided to undertake a complete restoration of the Academy to house government offices. The chapel had to be dismantled, catalogued and rebuilt. The chimneys were rebuilt and reinforced, and the balance of the exterior of the chapel was repointed. The deteriorated bricks were replaced and all were then coated with a kiem coating.