Jarvis Street Baptist Church, Gothic Revival church in Garden District, Toronto, Canada
Jarvis Street Baptist Church is a Gothic Revival church at Gerrard and Jarvis Streets, designed by Henry Langley and Edmund Burke. Its brown Queenston stone façade is laid in uneven shades of brown and dark yellow, with eight entrances framed by pointed sandstone arches and solid oak double doors, some now closed by black cast-iron gates. The roof of Canadian slate is built from pitched segments joined by a horizontally sliced dome, and the interior has a U-shaped gallery on iron columns.
The structure was built in 1875 with funding from Senator William McMaster and quickly became an important center for religious life in the city. A major fire in 1938 devastated the interior sanctuary, prompting a comprehensive reconstruction of the building.
The congregation dates to 1818 and met in a Masonic hall on Colborne Street by 1827 before building on Lombard Street in 1832. The Baptist Union of Canada held its first meeting here in October 1880, and from 1925 to 1933 the church ran radio station CJBC until Ottawa ended religious licences.
The church stands at the corner of Gerrard Street East and Jarvis Street, beside Allan Gardens Park and near Grace Toronto Church. Eight entrances with oak double doors open off the street, several now closed by black cast iron gates. The site is protected under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act, designated in 1999.
The church ran its own Toronto radio station, CJBC, from 1925 to 1933; it went silent when the federal government cancelled all religious broadcasting licences. The call letters are unrelated to today's CBC French-language station of the same name. The 1938 fire damage was rebuilt under pastor Thomas Todhunter Shields, who insisted the new spire replicate the old one exactly.
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