The Jarvis Street Baptist Church is a Baptist church located at the intersection of Gerrard Street and Jarvis Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario. One of the oldest churches in the city, its congregation was founded in 1818, and the present church constructed in 1875.
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Early records indicate that by 1829, church meetings were held at the Masonic Hall on Colborne Street. The congregation then bought property on Lombard Street and constructed a small chapel in 1832. By 1844, the congregation had moved to Bond Street and was known simply as The Baptist Church with a membership that grew to 400 by the late 1860s. The present church was erected on Jarvis Street in 1875, with a large donation to the construction costs from the Canadian Senator and banker, William McMaster.[1] The congregations's past ministers include John Harvard Castle, who became pastor in 1873 and later played an instrumental role in founding the Toronto Baptist College,[2] and Thomas Todhunter Shields who held the pastorate from 1910 until his death in 1955.[3] It was during Shields' tenure that a disastrous fire severely damaged the building in 1938. Shields supervised the rebuilding and insisted that the new spire be an exact replica of the old one.[4]
The Jarvis Street Baptist Church was designed in the Gothic Revival style by the architectural firm of Henry Langley and Edmund Burke. It was one of the first churches in Canada to be built with an amphitheatre-shaped interior. The ground floor seating is grouped in a semicircle, while the gallery above is horseshoe shaped.[5] The main façade of the building is made out brown stone that is obtained from the regions of Queenstown.[6] The stone is laid unevenly with a pattern that varies in different shades of browns and dark yellows. The material used for the roof is Canadian slate. The roof is constructed from a series of pitched segments that are centrally connected by a horizontally sliced dome. There are eight entrances, each consisting of solid oak double doors framed with pointed sandstone arches. Several of these doors have been blocked off with black cast iron gates. Triangular sets of small rosette windows are placed above every door to fill the space in between the entrance and the top of the arch. The building has number of columns with slim tall shape and different capitals that are loosely based on a Corinthian order. The capitals are made of gray stone while the columns are of a high quality bronze shaded granite found in St. George, New Brunswick.[6] The main entrance is set under the only tower of the building facing the south west side which serves as a vertical axis to the building. A copper spire sits on top of the tower, adding approximately nine metres to the existing roof height. In addition to the vertical axis the building also has a horizontal symmetry axis that goes diagonally through the building. The flat-roofed extension of the church, built after the 1938 fire, was constructed with red brick masonry which contrasts with the charred Queenston façade.
Tall, thin arched windows cover the walls of the of the church, with the exception of the extension building whose windows are rectangular. The windows are divided into squares and diamonds of yellow and colourless textured glass. Many of the windows are aligned with one another. However a few of the smaller windows are offset to form a step-like pattern. The white wood framing of the windows contrasts with the colourful exterior stone. The building is heavily decorated with ornaments at the top of every pitched roof and throughout the spire. Gargoyles align with the entrance doors, and rippled arches are engraved in the building.
The building is situated in the centre of a group of fast food restaurants, corner stores, apartment buildings, and townhouses. It is the neighbour of the Allen Gardens Park as well as St. Andrew's Evangelical Lutheran Church (originally Old St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church). The interior of St. Andrew's, also designed by Langley and Burke, is said to resemble that of the original Jarvis Street Baptist Church.[7] In comparison to its surroundings the building is very large on both vertical and horizontal planes. At the time of construction it was very likely one of the tallest buildings in the area.
According to the church's pastor, the congregation adheres in principle to a Calvinistic Baptist theology.[8] In addition to community worship, visitation and prayer meetings, the church hosts a variety of study groups, fellowships and activities including a Bible school for all ages, Mandarin Bible study, college and careers seminars, the Kidz club for 7-14 year-olds, and women's and couples' fellowships. The church also has its own library known as the Bookroom. Jarvis Street Baptist Church Sunday morning services are broadcast on WDCX-FM.