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Located on the historic Norval Road (Guelph Street), St. John’s United Church can trace its history to the Methodist revival of the 1840s and is the only Church to come from the Episcopal Methodist tradition project. The earliest Methodist saddlebag preachers to arrive in the area held services not in Georgetown but in the nearby settlement of Glen Williams, forming a congregation there in 1839. These Wesylian Methodists built a small wooden frame chapel in Glen Williams and served the area. Noted firebrand preacher Rev Edgerton Ryerson visited the site in 1841, preaching both in Glen Williams and in the new settlement of Georgetown; MethodistsRead More →

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Sitting quietly on Guelph Line, this small stone church is easily missed or thought that it is no longer an active church. But this historic church is one of the many churches along the main stretch of the former Nassagaweya Township. The first Anglican ministers began holding services through the township in 1842; these were often held in the homes of the congregant ministers or a local schoolhouse. In 1844, the congregation had grown enough to warrant the purchase of a lot from George Curry to serve the communities of Moffet, Haltonville and Campbellville communities. The lot, located at 10th Sideroad, would serve as aRead More →

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In an area filled with Gothic Revival churches, Nassagaweya Presbyterian bucks the local trend by sticking to its rural roots with its loyalist-style building. But this small rural church has a big heart. Starting in 1836, Presbyterian ministers from the Esquining Presbyterian Church (Boston) began to host worship services in S.S. No. 3 or Knowles Schoolhouse. Despite the area’s poor reputation, the congregation flourished, and in 1838 Daniel McNair donated a section of his property to establish a church and burial ground. Volunteers constructed a simple Loyalist-style frame meeting house which hosted its first service in 1839. In May 1839, the session’s first meeting wasRead More →

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The tall square bell tower of St. Jude’s Anglican Church is a landmark of Downtown Oakville; while not as prominent as Knox’s spire, the square tower reminds people that this is an Anglican church. Despite a strong leaning towards the colonial government in Oakville, the lack of an Anglican parish in the early history of Oakville is surprising, but the Chisholms were strong Presbyterians. The first recorded Anglican service in Oakville occurred in 1839 when Rev Thomas Greene rode from Wellington Centre (Burlington) and St. Luke’s Parish to conduct a service in a local home. The strong response saw regular services being conducted in aRead More →

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This beautiful stone church stands right around a corner and is slightly out of a driver’s visual range. But this stone church occupies the historic village of Lowville, which is technically part of Burlington, but where the modern borders lay, the church is in Milton. Anglican ministers started visiting the area in 1836, hosting non-denominational Sabbath Schools in a schoolhouse in Lowville. While these schools are not technically connected to a modern parish, they certainly helped support the area’s Anglican population. It wasn’t until 1856 that a Parish was officially established in Lowville. A plot of land was donated to the church by George AgnewRead More →

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Today most people visit the historical village of Hornby for the Toronto Outlet mall. But this tiny village was once home to a thriving community with a large church presence. And while all have since closed, there is still one that stands tall, St Stephen’s Anglican Church. In 1834, Rev Adam Elliot led the first recorded Anglican service in Hornby. Rev Elliot, known for his work with Canada’s Indigenous peoples, was one of many missionary rectors who served the many Anglicans who lived in the rural parts of Upper Canada. These services continued in Hornby, hosted at farms through the settlement and, as attendance grew,Read More →

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St. John’s Anglican Church is another small rural parish easily missed. I didn’t even know the parish still existed after coming across the name in connection with other Anglican churches. But after driving past on my way home and discovering its history, I knew I would have to include the congregation. The township of Nelson was home to many small rural communities that popped up along Dundas Road. One of these communities, Hannahville, grew up around the modern intersection with Guelph Line. Like many such communities, there were a significant group of Anglicans who, if they wished to worship, needed to travel to St. Luke’sRead More →

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Hidden far from the downtown and tucked away is the oldest continuously occupied Church in Oakville. The Parish of St. Andrew’s owes itself to Irish farmers Bartholomew O’Conner and Charlie O’Hara, who convinced a priest in Dundas to celebrate Mass in Halton Region in 1819. For many years, the Roman Catholics in Oakville travelled some seventeen kilometres to the St. Peter’s Mission Church, but the first known celebration of Mass in Oakville occurred in 1835. This number grew as the St. Peter’s Parish only offered mass once every four months. In Oakville, the rapid growth of the settlement resulted in 150 Catholics celebrating mass inRead More →

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There are few legal options to see some of Ontario’s electrical generation infrastructure, especially historically significant ones. At the same time, you may still be able to take a public tour of the Sir Adam Beck Generating Station or get a glimpse at the RL Hearn station if you’re there for an event. But even in those, you are limited in what you can see unless you’re suitable for some casual trespassing. But when I learned that one of the iconic Niagara Falls generating stations was opening up as a tourist destination, I knew I had to check it out. So back in July, IRead More →

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It has been long since I smelt the acrid odour of black powder and smoke drifting over the battlefield. But a couple of weekends back I got to attend my first Napoleonic reenactment since the Grand Tactical in 2019. And while the event hosted at Fort George in Niagara-On-The-Lake wasn’t a dedicated 1812 event, there were plenty of units that normally attend 1812 events. But the, Fort George was standing in for a frontier fort on the Spanish peninsula built by the French. While the lines were certainly smaller than what I’m used to at such events, with broad support not only from the pocketRead More →