Broadway Methodist Tabernacle was a prominent

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

church in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada, that existed from 1872 to 1924. The congregation was originally housed in a wood chapel at the intersection of

Spadina Avenue Spadina Avenue (, less commonly ) is one of the most prominent streets in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Running through the western section of downtown, the road has a very different character in different neighbourhoods. Spadina Avenue runs south ...

and

Dundas Street Dundas Street () is a major historic arterial road in Ontario, Canada. The road connects the city of Toronto with its western Greater Toronto Area, suburbs and several cities in southwestern Ontario. Three provincial highways—Ontario Highway 2 ...

, which at that time was known as St. Patrick Street. It was originally named the Spadina Avenue Methodist Church. Rapid growth in the congregation saw it seek a new home, and in 1876 a larger lot was purchased at the northeast corner of Spadina and College Street. The wooden church was transported on rollers north to the new location. The old site eventually became the location of the

Standard Theatre Standard Theatre or Standard Theater may refer to: ;in Australia *Royal Standard Theatre, in Sydney, known as "Standard Theatre", since demolished ;in Canada; * Standard Theatre (Toronto, Ontario) ;in the United States *Standard Theatre, early n ...

. In 1879 work began on a new brick church that would be able to seat 900. The church was also renamed Broadway Methodist Church, as at that time the wide stretch of Spadina from College to Bloor was often known as ''Broadway''. That church also became too small, and in 1887 it was almost completely demolished and replaced by a third structure. This building was designed by E. J. Lennox, the most prominent architect then practicing in Toronto. At the request of the congregation he copied the basic floor plan and design of his earlier Bond Street Congregational Church, but at a larger scale. Rather than employing the

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

style, as he had with Bond Street, Lennox designed the church in the

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

style. The building thus had many similarities in style of the

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

that Lennox was working on simultaneously. The new Tabernacle opened in 1889; near to the large working-class population of west Toronto and the textile mills of Spadina, it became an important social centre. This was especially true under the leadership of

Salem Bland Salem Goldworth Bland (1859–1950) was a Canadian Methodist theologian, Georgist, and one of Canada's most important Social Gospel thinkers. Biography He was born on 25 August 1859 in Lachute, Quebec, the son of Emma Bland and Henry Flesher B ...

, one of the leading

Social Gospel The Social Gospel is a social movement within Protestantism that aims to apply Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean en ...

advocates in Canada, and who led the church from 1919 to 1923. However, the nature of the neighbourhood was changing. New immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, most notably a large Jewish population, were moving into the working-class area and the Methodist English were moving north to other neighbourhoods. The merger of churches that created the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (UCC; ) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholic Church in Canada. The United Chu ...

in 1924 led to the eventual closing of the Tabernacle. The building was demolished by 1930, and replaced by the four storey office building that stands on the site today.

References

* * {{coord, 43.6583, N, 79.3997, W, region:CA-ON_type:landmark, display=title Churches in Toronto Demolished buildings and structures in Toronto Romanesque Revival church buildings in Canada E. J. Lennox buildings Destroyed churches in Canada Former churches in Canada