Bond Street Baptist Church

Bond Street Baptist Church built originally in 1848 represented the first permanently established Baptist congregation in the city of Toronto (then York), Canada.

At the outbreak of the War of 1812, Baptist life in Ontario was little more than embryonic. There were fourteen churches in all with at total membership of around 400. These first Regular Baptist churches in Ontario were linked together in two fledgling associations: the Thurlow Association (later called the Haldimand Association) consisting mostly of churches between Cobourg and Kingston and the Clinton Conference made up of four churches—Charlotteville, Townsend, Clinton, and Oxford. Theologically, these two associations were Calvinistic and amillennial in doctrine. The germ of the Baptist church in Toronto was planted in 1827, at which time a few people of this faith met in an upper room on Colborne Street, although there was no permanency until 1840.

In the minutes of the old St. George's Masonic Lodge, No. 9, there is a reference which shows there was a Baptist organization in that year. In the minutes of this lodge of July 6, 1827, it is stated that "Bros. Rose and Watson be authorized to rent the lodge room to the Baptist congregation at 7s, 6d. currency per month if they choose to accept on these terms." On October 3 of the same year the following report was read : "We, Walter Rose and Richard Watson, being fully empowered by St. George's Lodge, No. 9, to rent the lodge room for the sole use and benefit of a Sunday meeting, and none other, and that the said David Paterson have the free use of the said room on the Sabbath days for a period of six months, and the same be delivered to him in a clean state at 7s. 6d. provincial currency, monthly. He shall keep the house in careful and clean state, and deliver it in such state when the congregation leaves off the use of it." The house here referred to was a two-storey frame building on Colborne street. The first meeting of which there is any official record was held on October 16, 1829, when the late Joseph Wenhlam, of the Bank of Upper Canada, was appointed to keep a regular account of the transactions of the church. It would seem from incidental allusions in the minutes that one or more meetings had been held before, but there is no record of what was said or done at those supposed meetings. The old church records are very meagre, being confined to dry statements of facts or resolutions. No list of the members has been preserved in the church books, so that it is doubtful whether anyone knows with certainty who were the real constituent members of the church; only a few names appearing regularly in the minutes. Alexander Stewart was the first "president" or pastor of the little church.

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