St. James-Bond Church

St. James-Bond United Church
St. James-Bond United Church
Location	1066 Avenue Road ; Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Denomination	United Church of Canada
Architecture
Style	Tudor Revival
Years built	Late 1920s
Demolished	2006

Last updated January 24, 2024

St. James-Bond United Church, at 1066 Avenue Road in Toronto, Ontario, was a United Church of Canada congregation from 1928 to 2005, when it merged with Fairlawn Heights United Church (now Fairlawn Avenue United Church) in the Yonge Street and Lawrence Avenue area. The "St. James-Bond" name derived from the merger of St. James Square Presbyterian Church with Bond Street Congregational Church in 1928. Prior to the merger, they were separate congregations downtown, of the Presbyterian and Congregational traditions respectively.

Bond Street Congregational Church

Originally located east of Yonge Street on Dundas Street, the congregation moved uptown in 1927, to a growing suburban development north of Eglinton Avenue. The Bond Street building was acquired by a pentecostal church, Evangel Temple. The building was destroyed by fire after Evangel Temple moved to the Hoggs Hollow area, near Yonge and York Mills, on September 19, 1981.^[3]

St. James Square Presbyterian Church

Located on Gerrard Street, just east of Yonge, on the present site of Toronto Metropolitan University's St. James Square Campus, this was the third building of the Second United Presbyterian Church of Toronto. It was built in 1879, replacing a much smaller building at southeast corner of Gould and Victoria Streets (now Ryerson Community Park) that had been built by architect William Hay in 1855–1856.

The United Presbyterian Church's Canadian synod approved the division of their Toronto, Canada West Bay Street United Presbyterian Church congregation in 1853 to assist in the move of their Divinity Hall from London to Toronto. In 1861, the merger of the UPC with the Free Church saw the Divinity School merge with Knox College, and Gould Street Church grew under the leadership of:

Professor John Taylor (1853–1861), who returned to Scotland; his son, Sir Thomas Wardlaw Taylor remained in Canada, and was later Chief Justice of Manitoba.
Rev. Robert Burns (1861–1863), a Knox College professor, formerly of Knox Free Church,
John Mark King (1863–1883), later the Principal of Manitoba College in Winnipeg,
S. H. Kellogg (1885–1892), a former missionary to India), who returned there,
Louis Jordan (1894–1900),
Alfred Gandier (1901–1908), later Principal of both Knox (1909–1925) and Emmanuel College (1925–1932).
Andrew Robertson(1910–1916),
D. N. Morden (1917–1926).

St. James-Bond United Church

Both congregations joined the United Church of Canada in 1925. Each had declined as Toronto grew and parishioners joined congregations closer to their homes, some started by the respective congregations.

St. James Square was the "parent" of College Street United Church and St. John's Presbyterian Church, Toronto. Bond Street was the parent of Birchcliff Church in Scarborough Township (now Birchcliff Bluffs United Church). Bond Street was the first of the two congregations to move into a new area, joined by their former downtown neighbour a year later.

Ian Fleming apparently stayed with a friend on Avenue Road across from the church, and he later went on to write books about a character named James Bond.^[4] Fleming, however, always claimed the name was chosen from a book on birds called Birds of the West Indies written by ornithologist, James Bond. ^[5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deer Park, Toronto</span> Neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Deer Park is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is centered on the intersection of Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue and its boundaries are the Vale of Avoca section of Rosedale ravine in the east, Farnham Avenue and Jackes Avenue in the south, Avenue Road and Oriole Parkway in the west, the Beltline Trail in the north on the west side of Yonge Street, and Glen Elm Avenue in the north on the east side of Yonge Street. For the purposes of social policy analysis and research, the Toronto government’s Social Development & Administration division includes Deer Park within the City of Toronto's official "Rosedale-Moore Park" and "Yonge-St.Clair" neighbourhood profiles. The neighbourhood is in Ward 22, represented by Councillor Josh Matlow at Toronto City Council.

The Presbyterian Church in Canada is a Presbyterian denomination, serving in Canada under this name since 1875. The United Church of Canada claimed the right to the name from 1925 to 1939. According to the Canada 2001 Census 409,830 Canadians identify themselves as Presbyterian, that is, 1.4 percent of the population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knox Presbyterian Church (Ottawa)</span> Church in Ontario, Canada

Knox Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian Church in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is named after John Knox, a founder of Presbyterianism in Scotland.

The Presbyterian College/Le Collège Presbytérien, 3495 University Street, Montreal, Quebec, is a Theological College of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and is affiliated with McGill University through its School of Religious Studies. The Presbyterian College's student base comes from across Canada and around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knox College, Toronto</span> Postgraduate theological college in Toronto, Canada

Knox College is a postgraduate theological college of the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1844 as part of a schism movement in the Church of Scotland following the Disruption of 1843. Knox is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in Canada and confers doctoral degrees as a member school of the Toronto School of Theology.

St. Andrew's Church is a historic Presbyterian church located at the corner of King Street West and Simcoe Street in the city's downtown core of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was designed by William George Storm in the Romanesque Revival style and completed in 1876.

Knox Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian church in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Trinity-St. Paul's United Church and Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts is a church belonging to the United Church of Canada in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at 427 Bloor Street West, just west of Spadina Avenue in the city's downtown core. The church is formed of a mix of three different former congregations and houses a fourth independent congregation within its building.

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, is a Presbyterian Church in Canada congregation in downtown Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The congregation dates back to 1857, and at one time, was the largest congregation by membership within the Presbyterian Church in Canada (PCC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emmanuel College, Toronto</span>

Emmanuel College is the theological college of Victoria University in the University of Toronto. Affiliated with the United Church of Canada, it is also a member institution of the Toronto School of Theology. The college's principal is HyeRan Kim-Cragg.

Deer Park United Church is the name of a United Church of Canada congregation, and also the name of this congregation's former church building at 129 St. Clair Avenue West in the Deer Park neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was one of two United Church of Canada buildings in the area and along St. Clair Avenue, the other being Timothy Eaton Memorial Church.

The Knox United Church, began as Knox Presbyterian Church in Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in a wood-frame church built in 1848, the result of the Church of Scotland disruption, that led to the formation of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in Connection with the Free Church of Scotland.

Calvin Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian Church in Canada congregation in the Deer Park area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The church building is located at 26 Delisle Avenue, close to Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue.

Knox United Church is a Gothic Revival church located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and is a member church of the United Church of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Presbyterian Church (Hamilton, Ontario)</span> Church in Ontario , Canada

Central Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian Church in Canada congregation in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, located in the downtown area at the corner of Charlton and Caroline Street South.

Downing Place United Reformed Church, Cambridge is a church in Cambridge, England, that is part of the United Reformed Church. It was formed in 2018 in a merger between St Columba's Church, Cambridge, and Emmanuel Church, Cambridge. The church occupies the former St Columba's building in Downing Place, which is close to a site occupied by Emmanuel's congregation before 1874.

St. Andrew's United Church is an historic congregation of the United Church of Canada in Toronto, Canada. Located in the city's downtown core near the intersection of Yonge and Bloor streets, it is a combination of five other downtown Toronto congregations.

King's Highway 11A, commonly referred to as Highway 11A, was the highway designation for an alternate route of Highway 11 in the Canadian province of Ontario. The north-south route paralleled Highway 11 within Toronto, serving as a secondary access to Downtown Toronto. It began at the York exit of the Gardiner Expressway (Highway 2) and travelled north on York Street to Front Street, where it transitioned onto University Avenue. It continued north on University Avenue to Queen's Park, where Highway 11A followed Queen's Park Crescent, encircling the Ontario Legislative Building, before continuing along Avenue Road. Highway 11A travelled along Avenue Road to Upper Canada College. It followed Lonsdale Road, Oriole Parkway, and Oxton Avenue around the campus and back to Avenue Road, which resumes north of the school. It continued north along Avenue Road to Highway 401, ending just north of the highway at Bombay Avenue.

Knox-Metropolitan United Church stands on Lorne Street at Victoria Avenue across from Victoria Park in downtown Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. It is the current manifestation of Presbyterian and Methodist congregations that date back to "worship services in both traditions…in 1882."

References

↑ "Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment" (PDF). City of Toronto Legal Documents. January 24, 2008. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
↑ "Toronto voters told to cast ballots at demolished church". Cbc.ca. October 13, 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-03.
↑ Edward James Lennox: "builder of Toronto"; by Marilyn M. Litvak
↑ "CBC's X Company blends Second World War fact with a modern feel". thestar.com. February 17, 2015.
↑ "James Bond, Ornithologist, 89; Fleming Adopted Name for 007". The New York Times. 17 February 1989. Retrieved 22 August 2019.

External links

Fairlawn Avenue United Church website – including a page about The Good Shepherd Window from the St. James-Bond United Church
Location of the final church at 1066 Avenue Road – with photos and links to websites related to the area

43°42′21″N79°24′37″W / 43.705759°N 79.410202°W / 43.705759; -79.410202

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment" (PDF). City of Toronto Legal Documents. January 24, 2008. Retrieved January 19, 2017.

[2] "Toronto voters told to cast ballots at demolished church". Cbc.ca. October 13, 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-03.

[3] Edward James Lennox: "builder of Toronto"; by Marilyn M. Litvak

[4] "CBC's X Company blends Second World War fact with a modern feel". thestar.com. February 17, 2015.

[5] "James Bond, Ornithologist, 89; Fleming Adopted Name for 007". The New York Times. 17 February 1989. Retrieved 22 August 2019.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]