Kingston , Canada West, 1855
It's 1855, and the building is now three years old. The paint is dry, the dust no longer sifting onto the pews.
Such a dusty job it was, altogether–stone dust, plaster dust, mortar, just plain mud from the streets. That's all behind us now. Our new church has been here for two years. The congregation, of course, is much older. Several Methodist congregations had been worshipping together since 1791. In 1847 we Methodists decided to join together into one congregation.
But we needed to build a house of worship.
When John Counter sold us the lot for our new building, we had to hire an architect. Many of us liked the work William Coverdale has done around town – St. James Anglican church, built in 1844, St. John's Anglican church in Portsmouth , his fine work on St. George's . And of course, many other buildings in our growing city. Just around the corner, on Earl Street , is the lovely row of new houses – and nearby we can see many imposing homes. Coverdale and his contractors have worked on some of these. We hoped Coverdale would design and build our new Methodist church. He of course agreed, and we have our magnificent new building, officially blessed in 1852. The skyline of our city of 6300 souls is so much richer because of his work.