St. Mary's Anglican Church - Richmond Hill, ON, Canada
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InGodsHands
N 43° 52.342 W 079° 26.274
17T E 625508 N 4858883
This is the St. Mary's Anglican Church in Richmond Hill, Ontario.
Waymark Code: WMCZJT
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 10/30/2011
Views: 5
St. Mary's Anglican Church is unique among the churches in Richmond Hill's historic core, in that the congregation's first actual church building, erected in 1872, is still standing. When the present church was constructed in 1964, the older edifice was preserved and encorporated into the church complex as a chapel.
Until 1872, Anglicans in Richmond Hill had attended services at Holy Trinity in Thornhill, built in 1830, or met in Dr. Duncumb's Hall, a red brick meeting hall built by Dr. John Duncomb around 1857. Although records indicated that the Hall had been destroyed by fire in 1870, it was, in fact, restored and still stands today at 10027 Yonge St., directly across the street from St. Mary's. In 1878, Dr. Duncumb's brother and nephew donated a bell to the church in his memory. The church wardens of the time wrote that, "In his hall, our congregation was first formed, and long continued to worship."
In 1871, John Arnold deeded land for the purpose of building a church. St. Mary's held its first services in October of 1872. Built of buff brick, it was fashioned after St. James Cathedral in Toronto, but naturally on a much smaller scale. Apparently pews were not installed until 1874, when they were financed by renting them to the congregation. A sliding scale was established, the first three rows of pews costing ten dollars a year, the ones at the back going for five. The church property was expanded by another donation of a lot by John Arnold in 1879 and a final donation of land by the Arnold family in 1926.
The church complex was expanded over the years. In 1929 a basement was excavated under the 1872 edifice and Wrixon Hall and Sunday School rooms were added in 1956. Finally in 1964, a new and larger church was constructed, but the congregation preserved the historic 1872 structure for use as a chapel. As part of the construction, the Arnold burial plot, which under the terms of John Arnold's deed in 1870 could not be moved, was enclosed within the church complex itself, in the hallway linking the old church, Wrixon Hall and the new sanctuary.
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Address:
10030 Yonge Street
Richmond Hill, ON L4C 1T8
(905) 884-2227