This is a project that seeks to explore the historical churches and congregations in Ontario, Canada. To be included, the church must meet the following criteria, the congregation (or source congregations) must have been founded before 1900. This will allow churches in the United Church of Canada (formed in 1929) to be included, and the current building must have been built prior to 1950 and be occupied by a congregation of the original denomination that constructed the building (Roman Catholic, United, Presbyterian).
Houses of Holy | Historical Churches of Halton Region
The overall colonial history of the Halton Region only began in the first years of the 19th Century. These churches represent some of the oldest congregations within the region. And while certainly not all the historic churches, this is the first round with the project theme.
0 – Houses of Holy | An Introduction
1 – Palermo United Church (1812)
2 – St. Peter’s Mission Church (1819)
3 – Boston Presbyterian Church (1820)
4 – Munn’s United Church (1823)
5 – St. John’s United Church (Oakville) (1832)
6 – Knox Presbyterian Church (Oakville) (1833)
7 – St. Luke’s Anglican Church (Burlington) (1834)
8 – St. Andrew’s Roman Catholic Church (1835)
9 – St. John’s Anglican Church (Burlington) (1835)
10 – St. Stephen’s Anglican Church (1836)
11 – St. George’s Anglican Church (Lowville) (1838)
12 – St Jude’s Anglican Church (1839)
13 – Nassagaweya Presbyterian Church (1839)
14 – St. John’s Anglican Church (Nassagaweya) (1840)
15 – St. John’s United Church (Georgetown) (1841)
16 – St. Luke’s Anglican Church (Palermo) (1842)
17 – Knox Presbyterian Church Sixteen (1845)
18 – St. George’s Anglican Church (Georgetown) (1845)
19 – Grace Anglican Church (1851)
20 – St. Paul’s United Church (1853)
21 – Knox Presbyterian Church (Milton) (1855)
22 – L’Eglise Sacré-Coeur (1855)
23 – St. David’s Presbyterian Church (1869)
Houses of Holy | Volume Two
In the second volume of the Houses of Holy project I’m going to explore twelve of the oldest congregations in Canada that are still present and active today. While I did explore some older congregations in the first volume, those will not be included in the 2026 volume. This volume will take us all through Southern Ontario including Niagara-On-The-Lake, Hamilton, Toronto, and the Wellington regions. For a church to be included in Volume two, the congregation must have been founded before 1845.
01 – Little Trinity Anglican Church (1842) – Toronto, Ontario
02 – Knox Presbyterian Church (1837) – Elora, Ontario
03 – Christ’s Church Cathedral (1835) – Hamilton, Ontario
04 – St. Paul’s Lutheran Church (1835) – Kitchener, Ontario
05 – St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (1830) – Toronto, Ontario
06 – St. Augustine Parish (1827) – Dundas, Ontario
07 – Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate (1827) – Guelph, Ontario
08 – St. John’s Anglican Church (1816) – Ancaster, Ontario
09 – Cathedral Church of St. James (1797) – Toronto, Ontario
10 – St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (1794) – Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario
11 – St. Mark’s Anglican Church (1792) – Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario
12 – His Majesty’s Royal Chapel of the Mohawks (1785) – Brantford, Ontario
Houses of Holy | Volume Three
If there is one thing that I have come to learn is that the Church is universal. Denominations are a human construct and in the history of worship in Ontario church buildings have changed hands many times and often no longer serve the original congregation that built the sanctuary. In this third volume I will be exploring the historic church buildings that have become homes to a new denomination from the one that originally built them. For a church to be included in volume three, the building must have been built prior to 1950 and still be used as a church today but not in the same denomination.