HomeMy WebLinkAbout410"Article copied from the News Advertiser, Wednesday, December 15, 1992.
Illustration: Former Pickering United Church
AJAX - Over 100 years old and standing proudly on the main street of Pickering Village,
the former Pickering United Church (545 Kingston Rd. W.) has played a pivotal role in the
spiritual life of the Village over the years.
Erected in 1891 by a local contractor named Stephen Gordon, the brick structure was originally
known as St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. It was actually the second church on the site,
as the Church of Scotland had constructed an earlier stone church there in 1840,
commonly referred to as the 'Auld Kirk'. Prior to the construction of St. Andrew's,
the Presbyterians had worshipped in an equally elegant sanctuary on Old Kingston Rd., west of
Church St. that was later to become the Town Hall, then St. Paul's Methodist Church and
ultimately demolished in 1957 to make way for the Village IGA.
The congregation of St. Andrew's went through significant changes during the 1920s and 1930s.
In 1925, Church Union brought together the Methodists, Congregationalists, and two-thirds of the
Presbyterians to form the United Church of Canada. Consequently, St. Andrew's Presbyterian
Church and St. Paul's Methodist Church became, respectively, St. Andrew's United and
St. Paul's United. While the two United Church congregations continued to exist separately for a
few years, local union was considered inevitable as well as advantageous and on Jan. 24,
1930 both congregations decided overwhelmingly in favor of unity. On March 28, 1930 the
Consummation of Union Service for the new Pickering United Church was held.
Reverend J. Harold Stainton from Courtice was the first minister, serving until 1932.
Although the original plan was to hold services on alternate weeks in each building
(St. Andrew's and St. Paul's), this proved to be rather inconvenient. Beginning in 1937,
services were held every week in the former St. Andrew's sanctuary. At this time,
the building was completely redecorated, as it had suffered somewhat during the years having
been used for public meetings, plays, concerts, a club room and even a gymnasium for a boy's
club.
In the early 1950s the church lost its most striking architectural feature. As Leslie Morley
describes so vividly in his History of Pickering United Church 1925-1975:
""During a violent summer thunderstorm the steeple of the church was struck by lightning.
The bolt struck with such force that the wooden rafters were shattered and twisted out of plumb.
The tower was roofed with slates which were scattered over a wide area.
The damage was so extensive as to make it hazardous in the extreme and practically impossible
to repair. The upper part of the tower was removed later and a metal cottage roof built replacing
the original beautiful tower. The only casualties were the hundreds of bats which lived in the
belfry.""
To accommodate its expanding membership and in particular the younger families,
the congregation built a Christian Education Centre behind the sanctuary in 1961,
which provided a large auditorium, kitchen, classrooms, a chapel, church office and minister's
study. However, the burgeoning growth of Ajax and Pickering during the 1980s again resulted
in a clear realization that the existing facilities were inadequate for the church's present needs,
let alone future ones. After a great deal of study and soul-searching, it was decided in early
1988 that the existing site was inadequate and a larger property would have to be found.
The last worship service at Pickering Untied Church's Kingston Rd. location was held on
April 30, 1989 and the new building at 300 Church St. N. (adjacent to Pickering High School)
was completed by September 1989, with the building being dedicated on Sept. 24.
At the present time the former sanctuary is being used as a dance studio while the Christian
Education Centre to the rear is being used for a Montessori School. Immediately to the east of
the church, the historic house (built in 1872, it is an outstanding example of the Ontario
vernacular style) is still used as a residence. Apart from the relocation of the pews and the
stained glass windows to the new church, the sanctuary remains virtually intact —
an architecturally and historicall significant element in the Kingston Rd. streetscape of
Pickering Village."