St Paul's Presbyterian Church, Hamilton is a congregation of the

Presbyterian Church in Canada The Presbyterian Church in Canada (french: Église presbytérienne du Canada) is a Presbyterian denomination, serving in Canada under this name since 1875. The United Church of Canada claimed the right to the name from 1925 to 1939. According to ...

located at the city centre of

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

. The church building, designed by renowned architect William Thomas, is federally designated as a National Historic Site in Canada and provincially designated by the province of Ontario as a heritage site under the Ontario Heritage Act.

History

The congregation was founded by Scottish immigrants in 1830, originally named St. Andrew's. The name was changed to St. Paul's in 1873. The building was constructed over four years, from 1854 to 1857. The choir at the west end of St Paul's was extended in 1909, designed by Hugh Vallance. The building was designated a National Historic Site in 1990.

Building features

The church building was designed by

William Thomas (architect) William Thomas ( – 26 December 1860) was an Anglo-Canadian architect. His son William Tutin Thomas (1829–1892) was also an architect, working mostly in Montreal, Quebec. Life Thomas was born in Suffolk, England. He was apprenticed to a l ...

in the style of English

Gothic revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

. The building's exterior is grey limestone which comes for the most part from local Hamilton quarries by stonemason George Worthington. Many windows are adorned with Gothic tracery. The sanctuary is made of dark wood. There is a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

with rich foliage sculptures on the capitals. The church yard includes a small cemetery. Architectural historian

Marion MacRae Marion MacRae (April 30, 1921 – August 11, 2008) was a Canadian architectural historian who won the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction in 1975 for ''Hallowed Walls''. Born in Apple Hill, Ontario, in 1921,MacMaster Universi ...

assessed the building as "the best Decorated Gothic Revival Church in Ontario".

Steeple

The church has a single

steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religi ...

made entirely of stone which rises a height of 180 feet. It rises to a height of 100 feet to the top of the parapet line at which point it almost imperceptibly reduces itself into an octagonal spire with lucarnes on alternate sides. The tower and spire display medieval details from the Middle Pointed or Decorated phase of English Gothic (late 13th to early 14th century), including twin, pointed belfry openings on each side of the tower. The corners of the tower are reinforced with buttresses at right angles to the walls. There are narrow angle turrets each with their own delicate spire adorned with

crockets A crocket (or croquet) is a small, independent decorative element common in Gothic architecture. The name derives from the diminutive of the French ''croc'', meaning "hook", due to the resemblance of crockets to a bishop's crosier. Description ...

and a

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

at the top. It is the largest entirely stone steeple in Canada.

Bells

The chimes are eleven bells weighing in total , ranging is size from the smallest at to the largest bell at . The bells were used first on Sunday, 11 November 1906. The bells are functional and are played every Sunday morning and on special occasions.

Cross

On the south-east yard the Cross of Sacrifice, a large

Celtic cross The Celtic cross is a form of Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring that emerged in Ireland, France and Great Britain in the Early Middle Ages. A type of ringed cross, it became widespread through its use in the stone high crosses er ...

, was erected in 1921 as a war memorial. It was carved in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and is similar to the ancient crosses in

Iona Iona (; gd, Ì Chaluim Chille (IPA: �iːˈxaɫ̪ɯimˈçiʎə, sometimes simply ''Ì''; sco, Iona) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there ...

. The arms of the Cross are truncated and the column tapers from its base to the apex. A circle symbolical of a crown or wreath surrounds the arms.

Services and events

The church provides services of worship Sunday mornings and on other special occasions, including weddings. The church participates in the annual "Doors Open" event, a citywide weekend-long event in the autumn which permits tours of historical buildings of Hamilton.

References

{{Reflist Churches in Hamilton, Ontario Churches completed in the 1830s National Historic Sites in Ontario 19th-century churches in Canada