1915 – The Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, Toronto, Canada

The church is named in memory of Timothy Eaton, founder of the Eaton’s department store chain, whose family donated the land and financed the construction. Original Methodist, a United Church since the merger of 1925. Almost Collegiate Gothic in style, this neo-Gothic church features a 30-metre bell tower that houses a 21-bell carillon.

The structure, while monumental, both externally and internally, is essentially practical, providing as it does for the greatest possible comfort in the way of unobstructed sight and sound. It has a frontage on St. Clair avenue of two hundred and thirty-eight feet and a depth of one hundred and thirty-four feet. It is built of grey stone with elaborately cut decoration, including the richly traceried windows. The main building with the Sunday school and belfry tower forms a most interesting group of buildings; with its ample grounds surrounded on three sides by streets, and set out as they are with a complete scheme of shrubbery. One of the interesting features of the building is the belfry tower, the apex of which is one hundred feet above the street level, and contains an installation of twenty-one bells.

The exterior and interior are designed in the late decorative period. The pews, pulpit, communion tables, organ cases, lighting fixtures and other furnishings were selected to harmonize with the treatment of the main building. The lighting fixtures are somewhat unique, the supports being of bronze, while the fixtures themselves have been made to harmonize with the decorative frieze, and are constructed with delicate open traceried work lined with silk, through which is obtained a soft light, the real illumination of the building being reflected from the ceiling. These fixtures can be lowered in a few minutes by means of powerful winches set above the ceiling.

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