inSPIREd Sunday

Sally and Beth host inSPIREd Sunday!

June 2018 - Toronto ON

We came across two converted churches on our College St. walk the other day.

This was on Dupont.

This Neo-Gothic inspired church replaced an earlier Centennial Methodist Church built on this site in 1891. Notable design elements include decorative stone trim, three central Tudor-arch windows, and flanking square towers topped with pyramidal steeples. It was renamed Centennial United Church in 1925, after the creation of the United Church of Canada. In 1986, the Nisei congregation of the Toronto Japanese Church joined Centennial United to form Centennial Japanese Church. A residential redevelopment was completed in 2010.

The Channel Club??

The large church was built in 1885 as College Street Presbyterian and could hold 1200 worshippers, under founding (1874) minister Alexander Gilray (1874-1915), and Robert Balmer Cochrane (1915-1925). In 1925, this congregation voted to join the United Church, and was the site that June of the 51st and final General Assembly of the originally constituted Presbyterian Church in Canada before a majority of congregations of that founding denomination voted to enter the United Church of Canada. Over time attendance fell and it ran into financial difficulties and fell into disrepair.

In the late 1980s, despite its heritage status, it was decided to demolish much of the church, renovate the bell tower, and rebuild in 1990. The new building is 8 storeys tall with a 89 suite condominium on top of the Church. The architects of the new building worked to have it be as similar to the old church as possible, copying many of its architectural elements.