Central United Church, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada
Image by Billy Wilson Photography
"Central United Church, built in stages between 1900 and 1911, is a powerfully modeled building constructed of local red sandstone. Standing on the northwest corner of Spring and Albert Streets in Sault Ste. Marie, the church dominates the streetscape through its size and the lack of set-back.
Central United Church is of heritage value as a link to the early Methodist community in Sault Ste. Marie, because of its association with prominent Sault Ste. Marie citizens at the time of its construction. In addition it is a unique example of ecclesiastical architecture in Sault Ste. Marie, influenced by non-conformist Methodist principles and the availability of local materials.
The Church was erected between 1900 and 1911 by Sault Ste. Marie’s Methodist community, a community originally established in the mid-19th century by George M. McDougall, a pioneer Methodist missionary.
Central United is also associated with other prominent individuals, including Francis H. Clergue, a prominent local industrialist who donated land to the congregation. Henry Simpson, the original architect for the project, is noted for having designed a variety of residential, commercial and institutional buildings in Sault Ste. Marie and throughout Ontario in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Constructed primarily of roughly squared local red sandstone, obtained from ongoing canal excavations, the church’s design was guided by nonconformist Methodist principles. Its main element is the octagonal sanctuary, a grand, vaulted space with a steeply pitched roof completed in 1903 and positioned in the southwest corner of the site, which is in sharp contrast to more common cruciform designs.
The outward appearance of Central United Church does not support any one particular architectural style. It may be that the succession of building stages together with the strong design input of the building committee severely modified Henry Simpson’s original concepts. Nevertheless its massive appearance, conveying strength and endurance dominates the streetscape and reflects the original request that the architect create a church with a style "indicative of Methodism’.
Key elements of Central United Church that reflect the influence of Methodism include:
– its dominant position on a corner lot
– its massive appearance and size
– its massive, square, four-storey bell tower
– its octagonal sanctuary with steeply pitched roof
– its arched and rectangular windows of varying sizes, filled with diamond-paned leaded glass
– its tall, square chimney
– its ornate battlements
– its turrets and buttresses." – info from Historic Places.
"Sault Ste. Marie (/ˈsuː seɪnt məˈriː/ SOO-seint-ma-REE) is a city on the St. Marys River in Ontario, Canada, close to the Canada–US border. It is the seat of the Algoma District and the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay.
The Ojibwe, the indigenous Anishinaabe inhabitants of the area, call this area Baawitigong, meaning "place of the rapids." They used this as a regional meeting place during whitefish season in the St. Mary’s Rapids. (The anglicized form of this name, Bawating, is used in institutional and geographic names in the area.)
To the south, across the river, is the United States and the Michigan city of the same name. These two communities were one city until a new treaty after the War of 1812 established the border between Canada and the United States in this area at the St. Mary’s River. In the 21st century, the two cities are joined by the International Bridge, which connects Interstate 75 on the Michigan side, and Huron Street (and former Ontario Secondary Highway 550B) on the Ontario side. Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the Saint Mary’s Rapids via the American Soo Locks, the world’s busiest canal in terms of tonnage that passes through it, while smaller recreational and tour boats use the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal.
French colonists referred to the rapids on the river as Les Saults de Ste. Marie and the village name was derived from that. The rapids and cascades of the St. Mary’s River descend more than 6 m (20 ft) from the level of Lake Superior to the level of the lower lakes. Hundreds of years ago, this slowed shipping traffic, requiring an overland portage of boats and cargo from one lake to the other. The entire name translates to "Saint Mary’s Rapids" or "Saint Mary’s Falls". The word sault is pronounced [so] in French, and /suː/ in the English pronunciation of the city name. Residents of the city are called Saultites.
Sault Ste. Marie is bordered to the east by the Rankin and Garden River First Nation reserves, and to the west by Prince Township. To the north, the city is bordered by an unincorporated portion of Algoma District, which includes the local services boards of Aweres, Batchawana Bay, Goulais and District, Peace Tree and Searchmont. The city’s census agglomeration, including the townships of Laird, Prince and Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional and the First Nations reserves of Garden River and Rankin, had a total population of 79,800 in 2011.
Native American settlements, mostly of Ojibwe-speaking peoples, existed here for more than 500 years. In the late 17th century, French Jesuit missionaries established a mission at the First Nations village. This was followed by development of a fur trading post and larger settlement, as traders, trappers and Native Americans were attracted to the community. It was considered one community and part of Canada until after the War of 1812 and settlement of the border between Canada and the US at the Ste. Mary’s River. At that time, the US prohibited British traders from any longer operating in its territory, and the areas separated by the river began to develop as two communities, both named Sault Ste. Marie." – info from Wikipedia.
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