Foundations of Faith: Historic Religious Buildings of Ontario

176 Pages·1991·7.96 MB·English

by  Violet M. Holroyd

FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH
HISTORIC RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS OF ONTARIO
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FOUNDATIONS
OF FAITH
I*
HISTORIC RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS OF ONTARIO
VIOLET M. HOLROYD
NATURAL HERITAGE /NATURAL HISTORY INC.
Copyright © Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc., 1991
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, Natural Heritage, P.O. Box 69, Station H,
Toronto, Ontario M4C 5H7
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Holroyd, Violet M.
Foundations of faith: historic religious buildings of Ontario
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-920474-64-0
1. Church architecture - Ontario. 2. Ontario - Religious and ecclesiastical
institutions - Guide-books. 3. Historic buildings - Ontario - Guide-books.
I. Title
NA5246.O5H6 1991 726'.09713 C91-094842-9
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council.
Design: Molly Brass
Printed and bound in Canada by Hignell Printing Limited
I dedicate this book to my husband
Gordon Arthur Holroyd
without whose help and understanding
it could not have been written
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CONTENTS
Foreword 9
Preface 11
Acknowledgements 13
St. Thomas Church, Anglican, Moose Factory 17
St. Peter Celestine, Roman Catholic, Pakenham 20
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Wilno 24
The Blue Church, Anglican, Prescott 27
Christ Church, Anglican, Tyendinaga 30
Half Moon Bay, Non-denominational, Gananoque 34
The White Chapel, Early Loyalist Methodist, Picton 37
Hay Bay Church, Methodist Episcopal, Bay of Quinte 40
St. Peter's Church, Anglican, Cobourg 44
St. Marks Church & St. John the Evangelist,
Anglican, Port Hope 47
St. Luke's Church, Anglican, Burlington 51
St. Mark's Church, Anglican, Niagara-on-the-Lake 54
The Chapel of the Mohawks, Anglican, Brantford 58
Uncle Tom's Chapel, Non-denominational, Dresden 64
Woodland United Church, Woodland Springs 67
The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Roman
Catholic, Manitoulin Island 70
The Church of Mary, Non-denominational,
St. Joseph's Island 7 5
The Madill Church, Wesleyan Methodist, Huntsville 78
St. James-on-the-Lines, Anglican, Penetanguishene 81
FOUNDATIONS AOF FAITH
Christ Church, Anglican, Bobcaygeon 84
St. Thomas Church, Anglican, Shanty Bay 87
St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Leaskdale 91
St. Paul's Anglican, The Quaker Meeting House,
& The Thomas Foster Memorial, Uxbridge 94
St. John the Evangelist, Anglican, Elora 99
The Church of Our Lady, Roman Catholic, Guelph 103
St. John the Evangelist, Anglican, Rockwood 106
Trinity Church, Anglican, Bond Head 109
The Temple of Peace, Sharon 113
The Fisherville Church, Early Presbyterian, Black
Creek Pioneer Village, Toronto 116
St. John The Baptist, Anglican, Oak Ridges 119
The Martyrs' Shrine, Roman Catholic, Midland 122
The African Episcopal Church, Oro Station 125
Christ Church, Anglican, Ilfracombe 128
An Old Order Mennonite Meeting House, Waterloo 132
Hiawatha United Church, Rice Lake 135
Metropolitan United Church, Toronto 138
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Toronto 142
The Kiever Synagogue, Toronto 145
St. John's United Church, Alliston 149
Paris Plains & St. James, Wesleyan Methodist
& Anglican, Paris 153
Knesseth Israel Synagogue, Toronto 158
Ja'Ffari Islamic Centre, Thornhill 161
St. Andrews & The Ruins of St. Raphael,
United & Roman Catholic, Williamstown 165
Postscript 169
Suggested Reading 171
Bibliography 173
About the Author 175
FOREWORD
O
ntario, not unlike other provinces of Canada, is a land of
immigrants. Wherever the pioneers and later immigrants
settled, they brought with them "the Faith of their Fathers".
Throughout rural and urban Ontario, spires tall and small
point the people to God. There is not a hamlet without a House of
Worship and there is not a community without its Church Street.
In this work, Violet Holroyd has relived for us the local his-
tory of many of the places of worship in our province. She further
portrays for us how the people built their temples of faith.
These historic buildings are memorials to the determination
and hardship of the pioneers who found strength, guidance and
comfort in the message of these meeting places. It was they who
laid the foundations, visible and invisible, upon which the moral
fibre of the province was built.
This book, well researched, and written in a very readable
style, is a work that should be in the collection of every local his-
tory library in the province of Ontario.
(REV.) F. ALLEN PICKERING
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