1914 – First Methodist Church, Hamilton, Ontario
After the amalgamation of churches in 1925, it was known as Pilgrim United Church. In 1957 a major fire destroyed the interior; the church was restored and reopened January 12, 1958. Another fire on September 13 1969 destroyed the building and it was demolished.
“This edifice, opened May 10, 1914, occupies a sqiuare enclosed on three sides by King, Wellington and Main streets. The site, two hundred by three hundred feet, provides an excellent setting in conjunction with a public park opposite King street upon which thoroughfare the main facade faces. The exterior is treated in buff tapestry brick with raked out joints of five-eighths inch thickness ; artificial stone trimmings of crandelled surface and rubbed finish; pitched roofs of purple slate and tile, and dome treated in a deep red Spanish tiling.
The building is two hundred feet long by one hundred and ten feet wide. The auditorium seats sixteen hundred persons, the choir sixty, and the Sunday school proper, nine hundred and fifty; besides this there is a large kindergarten department in the basement of the Sunday school to accommodate three hundred and fifty scholars, and capable of grading or subdividing.
There are five large entrances to the building, three to Sunday school and two main entrances to the church. Two of the entrances to the Sunday school are also used for the church; and in addition is a wide basement or area entrance to the gymnasium or social hall, so that this room may be used without passing through any other part of the building.
The most important feature is the large auditorium surmounted by a dome sixty feet in diameter, supported on eight large reinforced concrete piers and arches— four small and four large ones with a thirty-six foot span.”
Construction, April 1915
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Published March 16, 2026

