Our Story
We began in 1846 . . .
We began in 1846 as a group of British and American Methodists meeting for prayer and worship in a small cottage on Adelaide Street near Bathurst.
In 1856, a house was rented . . .
In 1856, a house was rented for worship on Adelaide Street. Plans to build a church were stalled until new hope in the form of moral and financial support from Methodists at the North Street Church (now Metropolitan United Church) was provided.
In 1860, a frame church was built on the northeast corner of Adelaide and King Streets to make room for a congregation of 300 people.
Adelaide Methodist Church, as it was called, was sold later to the Anglicans and then to the Baptists. It was moved to the south side of King Street and enlarged to become what is now Adelaide Street Baptist Church.
In 1869, wooded property . . .
in 1869, wooded property at the corner of Dundas and Maitland Streets was purchased in 1869 and the cornerstone for a new yellow-brick church was laid. On April 3, 1870, the Gothic-style Dundas Street Wesleyan Methodist Church was dedicated. In 1876, it was named Dundas Street Centre Methodist Church to distinguish it from Dundas Street East Methodist Church (which later became Centennial United Church) built in 1874 further east on Dundas Street.
Dundas St. Centre Methodist Church . . .
Dundas St. Centre Methodist Church burned to the ground on February 13, 1895 but was quickly replaced with the present red-brick, Romanesque-style building. The Sunday School Auditorium was finished first and dedicated on October 24, 1895; the Sanctuary was dedicated on May 24, 1896.
In 1925, the church joined the union of Methodists, some Presbyterians and Congregationalists that became the the United Church of Canada. From then on, we have been known as the Dundas St. Centre United Church.
A Pictorial Guide . . .
