Stittsville Campgrounds - Stittsville, Ontario
Posted by: elyob
N 45° 15.571 W 075° 55.628
18T E 427258 N 5012198
Walk west through the forest beyond the baseball field and the arena.
Waymark Code: WM12DWM
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 05/07/2020
Views: 2
The campgrounds have been replaced by a soccer field and Alexander Grove's second baseball park. Remnants of the campgrounds are visible in aerial photographs from the 1970s. The chapel and the swimming pool are now backyards of homes on Forest Heights Avenue.
Stittsville Campgrounds 1898-1974
You are standing on the former 30-acre site of one of Canada’s largest and most widely known religious meeting grounds which between 1898 and 1974, became a memorable part of the lives of thousands of people and impacted the development of evangelical Christianity throughout Canada.
The Holiness Movement
In 1898, four Stittsville residents bought land
from Andrew Alexander between Manchester
Street and Poole Creek in trust for the Holiness
Movement Church to be used for its outdoor
religious meetings and for its Annual and General
Meetings. Delegates came from across Canada
and from the mission field in China, Ireland and
Egypt.
By 1918, the Stittsville site was the largest camp
in the Holiness Movement Church, drawing hundreds every summer. Most stayed in tents among
the trees at the campgrounds. Singing filled the
air on summer evenings. Gradually some permanent buildings were erected such as a house
of worship and a dining hall. Some families built
their own cottages and stayed all summer.
Mapledene Youth Camp
A Holiness youth camp started by Rev. Charles
McFarlane and Rev. Alton Gould in Brockville,
moved to the Stittsville campgrounds in 1948.
The Mapledene Youth Camp flourished in Stittsville, drawing young people from Western Quebec, Upper New York State, Ottawa, Richmond,
Stittsville, North Gower, the Ottawa Valley and
other areas of Ontario.
In 1959 the Holiness Movement Church merged
with the Free Methodist Church and in 1961
new washrooms, showers and an outdoor swimming pool were built at the camp. The pool was
opened to Stittsville residents in 1967. The camp
finally closed in 1974 when it was moved to Wesley Acres Methodist camp in Bloomfield, Ontario.
Erected by the Goulbourn Township Historical Society 2013