The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

TH.E 'HERIT AGE EDITION Massive Methodist Church filled quickly By Trudie Zavadovies Built in 1856, the former Whitby Methodist Church is one of Whitby's finer structures from that period. The enclosed porch on the building's east side is one of the last still standing in Whitby. The massive building, at the corper of Mary and Centre streets, housed the first congregation of the Wes- leyan Methodist Church in the community. The land on which the church was built had a succession of owners, beginning on June 18, 1836, when it was patented to Peter McDonald. William Cayley bought the land on Nov. 14, 1837 and sold it to George Strange Boulton on Sept. 16, 1840. On May 5, 1842 Peter Perry (1792-1851) pur- chased the land. In 1844 Perry, considered to be Whitby's fôunder, hired a pro- vincial land surveyor to draw up a plan for the village of Whitby, north of Dundas St. The land to become the site of the first Meth- odist church was designated as lots 94 and 95. Perry died on Aug. 24, 1851. His son Robert Perry (1825-1894) and other family members in- herited the land. John Welton and Jacob Bryan Sr. were leaders of the Wesleyan Methodist Church founded at Port Whitby in 1846. In 1847, the Methodists moved to the Free Church, a building owned by Perry on the northeast corner ofBrock and Mary streets. It was shared by many denominations. In 1852 the Methodists moved to the Mechanics' Institute Hall at the southeast corner of Byron and Mary streets. Without their own building in which to meet, they met in various public meet- ina halls. The church had a congregation of about 70 to 80 people from Oshawa, Whitby, Pickering Duf- fin's Creek, Port Perry, Prince Albert, Manchester and Utica. Verticals Venetians 0 Draperies Beoverngs Custom coordinated - made to measure with a personalized service makes for complete customer satisfaction. Hundreds of fabric samples with a shop-at-home service and expert interior decorating advice - all at competitive prices. Call today for a FREE consultation. Sam'c GDecor 'Where Clients Become Friends" St. W. Oshawa (Island Plaza) 436-3008 On March 23, 1854 Robert E. Perry and other family members sold lots 94 and 95 to William Thorndyke, Jacob Bryan Sr., Robert Morrow, John Welton, George Abbott, James Rice and James Hodgson, trustees of the Methodist Church. John Ham Perry, Robert's younger brother, and an Anglican, donated half the purchase price for the church site. He later donated the balance owing on the lots. On Oct. 7, 1854, church trus- tees mortgaged the property to Thomas Brown for 484 pounds, 12 shillings and four pence. This provided the money to build the church. The building, plain-looking by today's standards, lacked spires and towers and most resembled the public meeting halls the Methodists had previously used. The dedication sermon took lace in March, 1856, delivered Rev. Dr. E. Wood, president of t e Toronto Conference of the Methodist Church, and assisted by Rev. J. Borland and Rev. Gemley. The church was criticized by some as too large for the congre- gation and a waste of money. By 1860 the congregation had soared to 490 and was still grow- ing. A Sunday school was added in the 1870s. As the congregation grew, Whitby developed its own circuit. In 1863 Pickering took on its own congregation and in 1869 Oshawa followed suit. The most sigrificant of the church's nine mminsters was Rev. Joseph E. Sanderson (1830- 1913). He was fundamental in establishing the Ontario: Ladies 0 91 lý lixdË,k4 i vâürÊt ÉhËË"ibïmg§. cmvýMMBBà JL e College, now Trafalgar Castle School. In 1874,when it opened, he was appointed Governor of the school, a position he held until 1879. He later wrote a history of the Methodist, pub- lished in 1910. By the early 1870s the Meth- odists had outgrown their church and the Methodist Tabernacle, now St.Mark's United Church at the corner of Centre and Col- borne streets, was built. It had a seating capacity of 1,000 and was opened on Sept.7, 1876 with Rev. Wood, who had dedicated the first church 20 years before, offi- ciating at the opening. Rev. John S. Clarke bought the old Methodist Churéh on Feb.23, 1877 and converted it into a double dwelling house. It is believed that at this time were added the bay windows at the front to the first floor, a brick kitchen on the west side. The Whitby Chronicle of Nov. 22, 1877, noted that the downstairs ceiling was 13 feet high and the upstairs ceiling 12 feet high. A second floor was added during renovations in 1877. The Sunday school was also converted into a double house. Rev. Clarke left Whitby in 1877 and rented the building out as apartments until his death at Niagara-on-the-Lakein 1895. Smce then, the building has had a multitude of owners in- cluding James F. Pirie (1860- 1940), William Downie (1851- 1934). Brad Smith now owns the south part and John Rule owns the north part of the building. Rule purchased his portion of the church in 1982. "I fell in love with it the minute I walked through the door," says Rule. "There was such a feeling of bigness." Rule has taken a step-by-step approach to renovating his home and has done most of the work himself. "It was in a disastrous state of repair." So far he has renovated three of the four bedrooms and com- pletely rebuilt the kitchen. He still has work to do on one more bedroom, the hall, bathroom, laundry room and the upstairs landing which alone measures 12 feet by nine feet. He has lowered the 13-foot ceiling to about 10 1/2 feet. He has redone the roof and is now working on the landscaping. "It's a good house to bring up (6) children," says Rule. "I've put in more effort than money. I had the outside .painted (supposedly the original) under the heritage grant. "I try, within reason, to keep the character of the building. 1 redid the roof with asphalt shin- gles (the original cedar shingles would not have been safe or practical). I try to retain the character by using old-style mouldings and not modernizing it too much. It is an imposing structure. I don't want to live anywhere else." Rule says that the only remaining part of the original Methodist Church is the'. four outside walls. 0 580 Kingit