THE THIRTY YEARS (1950-1980)

THE BUILDINGS OF ST. JOHN'S

The Rectory

With the arrival of new apartment buildings on Kingston Road in the early 1950's, the church and the Cemetery Board in 1953 began to discuss the disposal of the rectory, former home of Canon Baynes­-Reed, at 156 Kingston Road. There was also the problem of finding a site for a new rectory.

The result was the sale of the old property in 1954 (the Baynes-Reed house was subsequently demolished) and the erection of a new building in the same year. The new rectory, an eight-room brick home, was built on the site of the tennis courts to the north of the parish hall on Woodbine Avenue. The Reverend and Mrs. Bagley held open house there in September of 1955.

The Parish Hall

The parish hall was a large, four-storeyed, red brick building constructed in 1925 to meet the needs of a large congregation and its surrounding community. The main floor held small offices, cloak rooms and washrooms. The basement housed a gymnasium with balcony, bowling alley, billiard room and lower kitchen. The second floor held a Vestry office and a large kitchen with a meeting room behind. Its auditorium had a seating capacity of six hundred on the main floor and two hundred in the balcony, with a large stage, and dressing rooms on either side. The raked balcony also had three rooms along the back, in effect constituting a fourth floor. On the third floor were the rector's office and another meeting room. For fire safety there were stairs at each end of the building from the ground floor up.

Throughout the parish hall's existence there was continual re­arrangement of space to meet the needs of the church. The lower kitchen was built in the 1940's and the gymnasium balcony was closed in to make Church School rooms and offices in the 1950's. In 1959 the men's washroom and the caretaker's office near the front door of the hall were converted to the rector's office and a changing room for visiting clergy. Finally, in 1974, the hall was refurbished through a bequest from the late Fidelia Mort.

From 1970 on, the problem of maintenance and the future of this very large building became a more constant concern for church officers and parishioners. A study was made in 1972 of containing all church activities in the church building proper and not using the hall. In 1976 Vestry reluctantly, but of necessity, accepted in principle the removal of the parish hall because, with a much smaller congre­gation, parish use had become very limited and all activities could be accommodated in the crypts; furthermore, the cost of maintaining the structure was beyond the financial means of the congregation. Extra Vestry meetings were held throughout the year to finalize decisions with regard to the demolition of the hall and the renovation of the church. The suggested cost of the work was approximately one hundred and seventy thousand dollars; this expense was met due to the hard work and, in some cases, sacrificial donations, of the parish­ioners of St. John's.

The land on which the parish hall and the lawn bowling green stood was turned into a much-needed parking lot. This facility has proved to be an undoubted attraction to those who must come to the church by car - an increasing proportion of St. John's congregation.

The Church

In celebration of St. John's centenary in 1950, the front of the church was greatly enhanced by the installation of a beautiful carved reredos of light-coloured oak the width of the east wall of the chancel, replacing the smaller curtained reredos that had surrounded the altar; in addition, a matching oak reredos was added to St. Leonard's Chapel by the Mothers' Society in memory of Canon Baynes-­Reed, and a memorial door installed an the southeast wall.

On the north aisle the sacristy door and wall were covered with the same paneling and a stained glass window was placed in the northeast wall by the Church School in thanksgiving for the ministry of Canon Nicholson. New lighting fixtures were installed and the church floor tiled. The chancel screen and railings were dedicated in memory of John W. Dee, founder and leader of the Maple Leaf Boys' Bible Class.

In succeeding years a Book of Remembrance, encased in glass with a wooden frame, was installed at the west door in memory of Edna MacGirr by her husband, former churchwarden Bert MacGirr. The book continues to this day as a memorial to former parishioners who have passed on. Twice a year it is updated in beautiful script through the good offices of Karl Numberger and Bob Corrigan.

The font was moved from the main south door entrance to the front of the north aisle below the Nicholson window. The first amplification system was installed by the Reverend Keith Adams and Randy Scott, with the financial help of the Junior Auxiliary and the Girls' Auxiliary. The Union Jack, used by Canon Baynes-Reed when he served as Chaplain to the 75th Battalion overseas in World War One, had hung in the church since 1918; in 1966 it was encased in glass and placed near the pulpit, and in 1979 was moved to the west wall below the War Memorial.

In 1972 Churchwarden Bruce McLeod launched the Bell Fund to cover repairs and renovations to the bells in the tower. Soon the appeal for four thousand dollars had been oversubscribed: support came in from not only parishioners but the surrounding community as well. All the bells now ring on Sunday mornings, including the 1855 one, repaired in 1977, which first rang when Bishop Strachan consecrated the first church.

Red carpeting was laid in the chancel and main aisle in 1973. In 1978 the pews in the northwest area of the church were removed to form a narthex where people could assemble for socializing or meetings; in addition, a sink and cupboards were built into the rear wall behind folding doors.

The Dominion of Canada shield, believed to have come from the Norway village toll house, is hung on this wall above the doors. In recent years more pews have been removed to make for wider aisles and easier access to seats in the north aisle area and in St. Leonard's Chapel.

In 1977 St. John's Norway was proclaimed an historic site by the Toronto Historical Board, and a plaque containing the following inscription was installed:

This church, designed by C. J. Gibson, was built in 1893 and enlarged by C. D. Lennox in 1915. Distinctive features are a high-peaked, hammer-beamed roof and stained glass from the original church, in an east window. Meet­ings first began in 1850 and with the estab­lishment of the parish in 1853, a small wooden school house was moved here and used as a church. The bell, still in use, was installed and the church and cemetery con­secrated by Bishop Strachon in 1855. Many United Empire Loyalists and other early settlers are buried here. St. John's founded a number of parishes in East Toronto.

The plaque, located on the church tower, was unveiled by the Honourable Pauline McGibbon, Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, in a special ceremony on June 19, 1977.  This ceremony marked the climax of a weekend of thankful celebration upon the completion of the first stage of our church building's renewal.

This renewal consisted of a complete renovation of the church basement, made necessary by the demolition of the old parish hall. The area under the northwest section of the church was excavated and a kitchen and women's washroom installed.

At the same time, the northeast area was remodeled to contain a new rector's office, sec­retary's office, and boiler room. Subsequent to this work, a major structural change, in the form of the removal of all but one of the posts in the west crypt, was carried out; this room is now a beautiful, spacious meeting place for large groups. The east crypt and lounge room were also remodeled, and in 1979 a men's washroom was added to the north basement aisle. Part of this last major stage in renovation was the combining of the two separate choir rooms into one, large enough to hold practices in.

The main aesthetic benefit of the removal of the parish hall became apparent to one and all when the north facade of the church was seen for the first time in fifty-five years. From inside, the beauty of the church's interior is now enhanced by natural light filtering through the stained glass windows of the north aisle; however, the change outside is even more striking, as a new north entrance, com­pleted in 1977, now complements the south porch.

In order to increase the sense of architectural unity, two leaded glass windows - from the original west wall of the nave - were installed in this north entrance. All in all, what was lost in capaciousness when the parish hall came down has been more than made up for by the beauty and efficiency of the renovated church.

It will have been noted in the "Centennial Book" that the original name of the church was St. John the Baptist, Berkeley. There was a village of Berkeley whose bounds were Lake Ontario on the south, north to the Grand Trunk Railway line, and from Woodbine Avenue on the east to approximately Coxwell Avenue on the west. However, possibly due to the lack of population and commerce in the area, the village did not develop as Norway did with its inns, blacksmith, and sawmill. The village of Norway ran from the west side of Woodbine Avenue, mostly along Kingston Road, and the post office was estab­lished there in 1866.

In Synod records the church is shown as St. John the Baptist, Berkeley in 1884, by 1900 it is referred to as St. John's Berkeley (Norway) and by common usage eventually became identified as St. John the Baptist (Norway).