Toronto of Old / Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario

by Henry Scadding

In 1810, a portion of the church-plot was enclosed, at an expense of £1 5s. for rails, of which five hundred were required for the purpose. At the same time the ground in front of the west-end, where was the entrance, was cleared of stumps, at an expense of £3 15s. In that year the cost for heating the building, and charges connected with the Holy Communion, amounted to £1 7s. 6d., Halifax currency.

In 1813, Dr. Strachan succeeded Dr. Stuart as incumbent of the church; and in 1818 he induced the congregation to effect some alterations in the structure. From an advertisement in an early Gazette of the year 1818, it will be seen that the ecclesiastical ideas in the ascendant when the enlargement of the original building was first discussed, were much more in harmony with ancient English Church usages, than those which finally prevailed when the work was really done. With whomsoever originating, the design at first was to extend the building eastward, not southward; to have placed the Belfry at the west end, not at the south; the Pulpit was to have been placed on the north side of the Church; a South Porch was to have been erected. The advertisement referred to reads as follows:—"Advertisement. Plans and Estimates for enlarging and repairing the Church will be received by the subscribers before the 20th of March, on which day a decision will be made, and the Contractor whose proposals shall be approved of, must commence the work as the season will permit. The intention is: 1st. To lengthen the Church forty feet towards the east, with a circular end; thirty of which to form part of the body of the Church, and the remaining ten an Altar, with a small vestry-room on the one side, and a Government Pew on the other. 2nd. To remove the Pulpit to the north side, and to erect two Galleries, one opposite to it, and another on the west end. 3rd. To alter the Pews to suit the situation of the Pulpit, and to paint and number the same throughout the Church. 4th. To raise a Belfry on the west end, and make a handsome entrance on the south side of the Church, and to paint the whole building on the outside. Thomas Ridout, J. B. Robinson, Churchwardens. William Allan. Feb. 18, 1818."

The intentions here detailed were not carried into effect. On the north and south sides of the old building additional space was enclosed, which brought the axis of the Church and its roof into a north and south direction. An entrance was opened at the southern end, towards King Street, and over the gable in this direction was built a square tower bearing a circular bell-turret, surmounted by a small tin-covered spire. The whole edifice, as thus enlarged and improved, was painted of a light blue colour, with the exception of the frames round the windows and doors, and the casings at the angles, imitating blocks of stone, alternately long and short, which were all painted white.

The original western door was not closed up. Its use, almost exclusively, was now, on Sundays and other occasions of Divine Worship, to admit the Troops, whose benches extended along by the wall on that side the whole length of the church.—The upper windows on all the four sides were now made circular-headed. On the east side there was a difference. The altar-window of the original building remained, only transformed into a kind of triplet, the central compartment rising above the other two, and made circular headed. On the north and south of this east window were two tiers of lights, as on the western side.

In the bell-turret was a bell of sufficient weight sensibly to jar the whole building at every one of its semi-revolutions.

In the interior, a central aisle, or open passage, led from the door to the southern end of the church, where, on the floor, was situated a pew of state for the Lieutenant-Governor: small square pillars at its four corners sustained a flat canopy over it, immediately under the ceiling of the gallery; and below this distinctive tester or covering, suspended against the wall, were the royal arms, emblazoned on a black tablet of board or canvas.

Half-way up the central aisle, on the right side, was an open space, in which were planted the pulpit, reading-desk and clerk's pew, in the old orthodox fashion, rising by gradations one above the other, the whole overshadowed by a rather handsome sounding-board, sustained partially by a rod from the roof. Behind this mountainous structure was the altar, lighted copiously by the original east window. Two narrow side-aisles, running parallel with the central one, gave access to corresponding rows of pews, each having a numeral painted on its door. Two passages, for the same purpose ran westward from the space in front of the pulpit. To the right and left of the Lieutenant-Governor's seat, and filling up (with the exception of two square corner pews) the rest of the northern end of the church, were two oblong pews; the one on the west appropriated to the officers of the garrison; the other, on the east, to the members of the Legislature.

Round the north, west, and south sides of the interior, ran a gallery, divided, like the area below, into pews. This structure was sustained by a row of pillars of turned wood, and from it to the roof above rose another row of similar supports. The ceiling over the parts exterior to the gallery was divided into four shallow semi-circular vaults, which met at a central point. The pews everywhere were painted of a buff or yellowish hue, with the exception of the rims at the top, which were black. The pulpit and its appurtenances were white. The rims just referred to, at the tops of the pews, throughout the whole church, exhibited, at regular intervals, small gimlet-holes: in these were inserted annually, at Christmas-tide, small sprigs of hemlock-spruce. The interior, when thus dressed, wore a cheerful, refreshing look, in keeping with the festival commemorated.

Within this interior used to assemble, periodically, the little world of York: occasionally, a goodly proportion of the little world of all Upper Canada.

To limit ourselves to our own recollections: here, with great regularity, every Sunday, was to be seen, passing to and from the place of honour assigned him, Sir Peregrine Maitland,—a tall, grave officer, always in military undress; his countenance ever wearing a mingled expression of sadness and benevolence, like that which one may observe on the face of the predecessor of Louis Philippe, Charles the Tenth, whose current portrait recalls, not badly, the whole head and figure of this early Governor of Upper Canada.