![[Heritage Photo from the Thomas Bouckley Collection courtesy RMG]](images/header/photos/rotate.php)
| Simcoe Street United Church | |||||||||||||
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Historical Reasons
Lot 11, Concession 1 in the Township of East Whitby was patented to King’s College on January 3, 1828. Joseph Gorham signed an agreement to purchase all 200 acres six months later, completing the transaction in June of 1837. John McGrigor (also McGregor) bought 100 of the acres from Mr. Gorham the following month. A plan of subdivision, Eunice McGregor’s Plan (No. C), comprising part of the acreage was filed April 2, 1855. Later, two additional plans of subdivision would be registered on this parcel: John McGregor’s Plan of October 14, 1867, and Royal G. McGrigor’s Plan dated October 30 that same year.
In March of 1863, the trustees of the Wesleyan Methodist Church purchased Block D., Lot No. 7 of Eunice McGregor’s Plan (now H-50004). The congregation’s first home, on the north side of King Street West across from Nassau Street, had been constructed by the members themselves more than twenty years earlier. An addition to that structure, built in 1861, was not enough to accommodate the growing congregation.
The land purchased in 1863 was closer to the center of town, and closer to the church members. Plans were drawn up and a building committee was formed for the construction of a new church.
In June of 1867 the cornerstone was laid. Eleven months later, in May of 1868, the Simcoe Street Methodist Church was ready for dedication.
Opening services were held on Sunday, May 31, 1868. The Rev. Dr. Egerton Ryerson, the Chief Superintendent of Education of Ontario, preached the morning service. The Rev. Dr. Wellington Jeffers, Editor of the Guardian, preached the afternoon service. A large number of other ministers were present at the altar, and the audiences for both services were large and filled the aisles. The evening sermon by the Rev. W. Morley Punshon, described as the most eloquent man of Methodism1, attracted such vast crowds that the service was held in the Rev. Dr. Thornton’s church across the street.
The Simcoe Street Methodist Church, described as both neat and beautiful, cost $15,000 to build. It could accommodate between seven and eight hundred people. Between 1911 and 1915, the church was completely renovated. The choir area was enlarged, new pews added, and a new heating system was installed. A new Sunday school building was built in 1913.
In November of 1919, a disastrous fire, believed to have been caused by the organ, destroyed the Sunday School building and part of the sanctuary. Under the direction of Capt. Rev. John Garbutt, the building was restored after the fire and renovations, at a cost of $75,000, were undertaken. This work included an enlarged sanctuary, a new Casavant organ, a safety vault, and renovations to the caretaker’s house and the parsonage. While repairs were undertaken, church services were held at the Marks Theatre.
In 1925, the United Church of Canada came into being. The Simcoe Street Methodist Church was renamed the Simcoe Street United Church.
Architectural Reasons
Exterior
The Simcoe Street United Church, completed in 1868, was designed by Grundry & Langley, Architects, of Toronto. Henry Langley studied at the Toronto Academy and apprenticed under William Hay of Toronto. After his apprenticeship, Mr. Langley formed a partnership with Thomas Gundry, an architect from England. In forty-four years of practice, Mr. Langley designed over seventy churches including All Saints Anglican Church, Whitby, and Metropolitan Methodist Church, Toronto. William Thomas Dingle, an Oshawa manufacturer of fanning mills and seeders, was the carpenter.
The church, measuring eighty feet by fifty-two feet was built in the Early Decorated Style of English Gothic architecture. The Gothic Revival style was the accepted style of the architecture for churches in the mid to late nineteenth century and many earlier churches designed in the Classical styles were “Gothicized” during this period. The Early Decorated form of Gothic Revival refers to the stonework, carvings and stained glass that embellish the structure.
The church is built of white (buff) brick and decorated with lancet-arched brick corbelling along the cornice. Ohio cut stone hood mouldings with carved label-stops project above the door and window openings. Cut stone copings sit on double brick buttresses that reinforce the east (front) elevation and projecting tower. Belt courses of cut stone add further ornament to the façade.
The three bay, balanced façade features lancet-arched door and window openings with a central projecting tower. A polygonal spire, decorated with pinnacles and dormers, rises from the tower. Originally 150’ high, the steeple was struck by lighting in the mid 1900’s. Repairs undertaken at this time refer to the lowering of the steeple by fifteen feet. A church bell was added to the tower in 1875 and sits behind the four louvered windows. Cast with the words “Presented to Methodist Church of Canada by the Young Men of the Congregation, July 1st, 1875”2, it was used as an auxiliary bell by the Oshawa Volunteer Fire Department.
Brick pilasters separate the five lancet-arched, tracery windows found on the two side elevations. Glazing bars interlace within each window opening. The windows are further embellished with stained glass.
An addition at the rear of the church to house the Sunday school was built in 1913. After the fire of 1919, the rear addition was rebuilt.
Construction of the chapel commenced in 1961 and was completed in 1962. Renovations to the Sunday School Hall and parlor were undertaken during this same period.
Interior
Prominent along the west elevation inside the Simcoe Street United Church is the pulpit and altar, separated from the congregation by a circular wooden railing. Situated in the large semi-circular area behind the pulpit and slightly elevated above it, is the choir loft, where the Casavant organ is also located. The choir area is defined by wood panels along the front and by the organ pipes, which dominate the west wall of the sanctuary, at the rear.
Overhead, ornamental timber arches divide the thirty-six foot ceiling by ribs and principals into panels. The wood is stained and grained to imitate oak. Vents are concealed in the decorative tin ceiling panels. These panels were supplied by The Pedlar People Limited, an Oshawa firm. When first constructed, a gallery, able to seat one hundred, was located above the vestibule at the east end. Galleries along both north and south walls were added in the early 1870s. This increased the overall seating capacity of the church to nine hundred people. The gallery supports are slender pillars with Corinthian capitals, rising from the main floor of the sanctuary. A wooden railing with decorative, painted metal grillwork runs along the front of the gallery. The end supports for the pews in the gallery repeat the metal grillwork of the gallery balcony.
Entrance to the tower is gained through a hinged panel in the window along the east wall of the gallery.
Architectural Summary
Elements both exterior and interior, of the church sanctuary, as set out in the Designation Proposal report, are included in the designation under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act. However, the 1919 restored Sunday school addition and the 1961 Chapel addition are not considered to be of historical or architectural significance.”