Intention to Designate Under Part IV of the

Ontario Heritage Act - 130 Gerrard Street East

(Jarvis Street Baptist Church) (Downtown)

The Toronto Community Council recommends the adoption of the following report (February1, 1999) from the Managing Director, Toronto Historical Board:

Purpose:

This report recommends that the property at 130 Gerrard Street East (Jarvis Street Baptist Church) be designated for architectural and historical reasons under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Funding Sources, Financial Implications and Impact Statement:

Not applicable.

Recommendations:

(1)That City Council state its intention to designate the property at 130 Gerrard Street East (Jarvis Street Baptist Church) for architectural and historical reasons under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act; and

(2)That the appropriate officials be authorized to take whatever action is necessary to give effect hereto.

Background:

At its meeting of October 23, 1996, the Toronto Historical Board (now known as Heritage Toronto) adopted a report recommending the designation of the property at 130 Gerrard Street East (Jarvis Street Baptist Church). The designation of the adjoining properties at 130 Gerrard Street East (Jarvis Street Baptist Church) and 337 Jarvis Street (Samuel Platt House) is being brought forward in relation to amendments being made to the Official Plan and Zoning By-law. As part of an agreement between the City of Toronto and the owner, the owner does not object to the designation of the properties provided that the rear portions of the buildings (newer additions) are not included in the designation.

The Board's report was deferred at the November 6, 1996 meeting of the Neighbourhoods Committee of the former City of Toronto Council to allow the Land Use Committee to deal with the Official Plan Amendment and Rezoning Application. On March 27, 1997, the Land Use Committee adopted the report from the Commissioner of Urban Development Services to amend the Official Plan and Zoning By-law.

At its meeting of January 20, 1999, the Toronto Community Council approved an Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law for the properties. The adoption of these by-laws will be considered by City Council concurrently with this report recommending the designation of the property at 130 Gerrard Street East (Jarvis Street Baptist Church).

Comments:

The Short Statement of Reasons for Designation, designed for publication, follows. The Heritage Property Report (Long Statement of Reasons for Designation) is attached.

Short Statement of Reasons for Designation:

Jarvis Street Baptist Church, 130 Gerrard Street East:

The property at 130 Gerrard Street East is designated for architectural and historical reasons. Jarvis Street Baptist Church was built in 1874-1875 for the successor to the first Baptist congregation in Toronto (formed in 1829). Designed by the important Toronto architectural firm of Langley, Langley and Burke, its construction was largely funded by Senator William McMaster, the prominent Toronto merchant and Baptist philanthropist.

Designed in the Gothic Revival style, Jarvis Street Baptist Church features a nearly-square plan covered by a steeply-pitched gable roof with cross-gables. Clad with mottled brownstone and trimmed with Ohio sandstone and granite, the focal point of the design is the canted tower and spire at the southwest corner of the building. The buttresses, quoins, lancet windows, pointed-arch window openings with tracery, and the gabled frontispieces with entrance portals and stone trim, are found on the south, west and north facades of the building. Important interior features are the U-shaped auditorium, with a horseshoe-shaped gallery supported on columns and a plaster ceiling with a stained-glass skylight.

Located on the northeast corner of Jarvis Street and Gerrard Street East, Jarvis Street Baptist Church is an important neighbourhood landmark. The church was the first home of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, founded by A. S. Vogt, organist and choirmaster at Jarvis Street Baptist Church. The building is an important example of Gothic Revival styling as interpreted by the foremost designers of churches in late-19th century Ontario.

Conclusion:

Heritage Toronto recommends that City Council designate the property at 130 Gerrard Street East (Jarvis Street Baptist Church) for architectural and historical reasons under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Contact Name:

Ms. Kathryn Anderson

Preservation Officer, Historical Preservation Division, Toronto Historical Board

Tel: 392-6827, ext. 239

Fax: 392-6834

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(Heritage Property Report dated October 1996

Jarvis Street Baptist Church - 130 Gerrard Street East)

Table of Contents:

Basic Building Data:

Historical Background

Architectural Description

Context

Summary

Sources Consulted

Attachments:

IShort Statement of Reasons for Designation

IILocation Map

IIIPhotographs

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Heritage Property Report

Basic Building Data:

Address:130 Gerrard Street East (northeast corner of Gerrard Street East and Jarvis Street)

Ward:6

Current Name:Jarvis Street Baptist Church

Historical Name:Jarvis Street Baptist Church

Construction Date:1874-1875

Architect:Langley, Langley and Burke

Contractor/Builder:none found

Additions/Alterations:1938-1939, alterations following fire, Horwood and White, architects

Original Owner:Jarvis Street Baptist Church

Original Use:religious

Current Use*:religious

Heritage Category:Notable Heritage Property (Category B)

Recording Date:October 1996

Recorder:HPD:KA

*this does not refer to permitted use(s) as defined in the Zoning By-law

Historical Background:

With the founding of Toronto as the Town of York in 1793, the area north of Queen Street was divided into park lots which were distributed to government officials. Originally the setting of the country estates of Toronto's founding families, by the mid 19th century the parcels directly north of the townsite were divided into residential lots along tree-lined avenues named Church, Jarvis and Sherbourne Streets. In Toronto's most fashionable neighbourhood, substantial houses were interspersed with churches.

The first Baptist congregation in Toronto was formed in 1829. After meeting in temporary facilities on present day Colborne and Lombard Streets, a church was constructed on Bond Street (on the site of present-day St. Michael's Hospital) in 1848. This congregation was important in the development of other Baptist churches in Toronto, opening facilities on Beverley, Parliament, Bloor and Alexander Streets as missions under the Bond (later Jarvis) Street church.

In 1874, following the acquisition of a vacant lot on the northeast corner of Jarvis and Gerrard Streets, construction of the present church began. Senator William McMaster, a prominent Toronto wholesale merchant and the founder of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, contributed $60,000.00 toward the building costs. McMaster was an important Baptist philanthropist who funded McMaster Hall for the Toronto Baptist College (the forerunner to McMaster University in Hamilton). As an original member of the Bond Street congregation, McMaster took a special interest in the development of the Jarvis Street Baptist Church.

The prominent Toronto architectural firm of Langley, Langley and Burke was engaged to design the church. In a practice spanning over 40 years, Henry Langley designed more than 70 churches and altered, enlarged or completed many others. Following his apprenticeship with architect William Hay (who designed St. Basil's Roman Catholic Church at 50 St. Joseph Street), Langley formed a partnership with Thomas Gundry in 1862. Their projects included the reconstruction of St. Stephen's-in-the-Field Anglican Church on Bellevue Avenue (damaged in a fire in 1865) and the design of St. Peter''s Anglican Church on Carlton Street (1866). Working on his own, Langley designed Metropolitan Methodist Church at Queen and Church Streets (completed in 1872). In 1873, Henry Langley formed a new partnership with his brother, Edward Langley and his nephew, Edmund Burke (this firm was succeeded by Langley and Burke, Burke and Horwood, Burke Horwood and White, and Horwood and White). Jarvis Street Baptist Church was among the first commissions received by the partnership. Coincidentally, Burke was a member of the congregation.

Jarvis Street Baptist Church was the first church in Canada designed with a U-shaped galleried auditorium, described by J. R. Robertson as "the more modern method of seating which bends the audience around the chancel" (Landmarks, 423). The church was extended by a 2-storey school building to the rear (east), containing a church parlour, library, classrooms and, on the second floor, a Sunday School room with a capacity of 500 seats.

The building opened for services in December, 1875. The size of its weekly prayer meetings, with 400 to 500 participants, attracted local attention. According to J. R. Robertson, writing in 1903, "there is no church in Canada or the United States that can secure, in proportion to its membership, an attendance so large as this at its regular prayer meeting" (Landmarks, 424). In 1894, Augustus

Stephen Vogt (1861-1926), organist and choirmaster at Jarvis Street Baptist Church, formed the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, using the church choir as the nucleus of a choral group whose membership soared to 100 voices. The Mendelssohn Choir was based at the church until the completion of Massey Hall.

Following a disastrous fire in 1938, Jarvis Street Baptist Church was substantially altered by architects Horwood and White, successors to the firm responsible for the original designs.

Architectural Description:

Jarvis Street Baptist Church is designed with Gothic Revival features, the most popular style for churches in the late 19th century. The style evolved in mid-19th century England, largely influenced by the publication of The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture by the architect and theorist A. W. Pugin. His book advocated the renewal of the Gothic style of the English Middle Ages, specifically the Decorated English style of the 14th century. Ideal compositions featured natural materials, buttresses, steeply-pitched roofs, gables, and pointed-arch window openings. The movement was further influenced by the writings of English art critic John Ruskin, who espoused the application of colour in architectural design. By the mid-19th century, Gothic Revival designs combined medieval prototypes with increasingly complicated floor plans and asymmetrical compositions. The style was introduced to Toronto in 1858 with the construction of the Chapel of St. James-the-Less in St. James' Cemetery by architects Cumberland and Storm. Its design, which included the relocation of the tower from the end wall of the nave to a side elevation, influenced the next generation of churches.

Jarvis Street Baptist Church is constructed of mottled brownstone and trimmed with Ohio sandstone and granite. Measuring 80 by 90 feet (24 by 27 metres), the church is almost square in plan and incorporates a similarly-shaped auditorium. The building is covered by a steeply-pitched gable roof, originally clad with ornamental slate shingles and trimmed with iron cresting. Cross-gables project from the north, west and south faces of the roof. The tower with its metal-clad spire is canted on a diagonal at the southwest corner of the plan, overlooking the intersection of Jarvis and Gerrard Streets. This element is balanced on the northwest corner by a hip-roofed projection, similarly angled.

The tower remains the focal point of the composition, with its buttressed walls, quoins, narrow lancet windows, pointed-arch openings with trefoil motifs and louvres, and stone corbels. The octagonal broach spire displays pinnacles, lucarnes, crockets and iron cresting. A gabled frontispiece at the base of the tower has label stops decorated with gargoyles. A compound compressed-arch portal contains double wood entrance doors (added in 1939) and a transom with quartrefoil and trefoil motifs. The entrance is flanked by polished granite columns with stiff-leaf capitals. A similarly-detailed entrance is found on the northwest corner of the building.

The motifs introduced on the tower are repeated on the west wall facing Jarvis Street, where a monumental pointed arch window opening with quatrefoil tracery is placed above paired gabled frontispieces with entrances. On either side, lancet openings are found. A name band marks the south end of this wall. On the south (Gerrard Street) and north facades, two cross-gables each display a monumental pointed arch window and multiple lancet openings. On the south wall, between the cross-gables, an entrance repeats the detailing found on the tower entry. The east end of the church has a three-sided apse, which is partially concealed by a 2-storey brick-clad addition (this addition is not included in the Reasons for Designation).

Important interior elements are the nearly-square auditorium, rising 45 feet (13.5 metres) to a groined plaster ceiling with a monumental skylight in the shape of a stained-glass rose window. The horseshoe-shaped gallery is supported on iron piers.

Context:

Jarvis Street Baptist Church occupies a prominent location on the northeast corner of Jarvis Street and Gerrard Street East. Its neighbour to the north, built as the Samuel Platt House in 1849-1850, is now occupied by the Toronto Baptist Seminary. Further north, at the southeast corner of Jarvis and Carlton Streets, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church was completed in 1878 to the designs of architects Langley, Langley and Burke. East of the church, the remainder of the block bounded by Jarvis, Gerrard, Sherbourne and Carlton Streets is filled by Allan Gardens. All of the above-noted properties are included on the City of Toronto Inventory of Heritage Properties.

On the opposite side of Jarvis Street, between Gerrard and Carlton Streets, the semi-detached house form buildings at No. 280 (1891), No. 288-290 (1890) and No. 314 (1865) and the Frontenac Arms Hotel (1930) at No. 300 are also listed on the Inventory of Heritage Properties.

Summary:

The property at 130 Gerrard Street East is identified for architectural and historical reasons. Jarvis Street Baptist Church was completed in 1875 for the successor to the first Baptist congregation in Toronto and as the flagship Baptist church in Ontario. It was designed by the important Toronto architectural firm of Langley, Langley and Burke, the foremost practitioners of ecclesiastical architecture in the Province during the late 19th century. Its Gothic Revival styling is highlighted by a canted corner tower, mottled brownstone cladding, and a profusion of pointed-arch openings and decorative stone trim. Located on the northeast corner of Jarvis and Gerrard Streets, Jarvis Street Baptist Church is a prominent neighbourhood landmark.

Sources Consulted:

Assessment Rolls. City of Toronto. 1874 ff.

Carr, Angela. Toronto Architect Edmund Burke. McGill-Queen's University, 1995.

Caulfield, John. 'The Growth of the industrial city and inner Toronto's vanished church buildings". Urban History Review (March 1995), 3-19.

"Choirmaster's dream led to musical fame for Toronto" (Toronto Star, 31 December 1976).

City of Toronto Directories. 1874 ff.

MacRae, Marion, and Anthony Adamson. Hallowed Walls. Church Architecture in Upper Canada. Clarke Irwin, 1975.

McHugh, Patricia. Toronto Architecture. A City Guide. 2nd ed. McClelland and Stewart, 1989.

Robertson's Landmarks of Toronto. Vol. 5. J. R. Robertson, 1903.

Thompson, Austin Seton. Jarvis Street. Personal Library Publishers, 1980.

"Toronto was the first home of McMaster University" (Toronto Star, 6 January 1979).

Kathryn Anderson

October 1996

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Attachment I

Short Statement of Reasons for Designation

Jarvis Street Baptist Church

130 Gerrard Street East

The property at 130 Gerrard Street East is designated for architectural and historical reasons. Jarvis Street Baptist Church was built in 1874-1875 for the successor to the first Baptist congregation in Toronto (formed in 1829). Designed by the important Toronto architectural firm of Langley, Langley and Burke, its construction was largely funded by Senator William McMaster, the prominent Toronto merchant and Baptist philanthropist.

Designed in the Gothic Revival style, Jarvis Street Baptist Church features a nearly-square plan covered by a steeply-pitched gable roof with cross-gables. Clad with mottled brownstone and trimmed with Ohio sandstone and granite, the focal point of the design is the canted tower and spire at the southwest corner of the building. The buttresses, quoins, lancet windows, pointed-arch window openings with tracery, and the gabled frontispieces with entrance portals and stone trim, are found on the south, west and north facades of the building. Important interior features are the U-shaped auditorium, with a horseshoe-shaped gallery supported on columns and a plaster ceiling with a stained-glass skylight.

Located on the northeast corner of Jarvis Street and Gerrard Street East, Jarvis Street Baptist Church is an important neighbourhood landmark. The church was the first home of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, founded by A. S. Vogt, organist and choirmaster at Jarvis Street Baptist Church. The building is an important example of Gothic Revival styling as interpreted by the foremost designers of churches in late-19th century Ontario.