Glebe Community Centre
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The Glebe Community Centre is a noted building in Ottawa, Canada that is the symbolic heart of the Glebe neighbourhood. It began construction in 1914 and took ten years to build. Originally built as St. James Methodist Church it became St. James United Church only a year after its completion when the United Church came into being in 1925. The massive palladian style structure was designed by Clarence Burritt.
In the 1960s and 1970s church attendance declined and in 1973 St. James decided to merged with Glebe United Church located just two blocks to the north, creating Glebe-St. James United Church. The building was bought by the city and converted into a community centre.
In the late 1990s the city pushed to close the structure in favour of building a new community centre in Brewer Park that would serve both the Glebe and Old Ottawa South. Both communities protested this plan and it was scrapped. Instead extensive renovations were undertaken, which were completed in October 2004.
