[PHOTO] Three College Street churches

The neighbourhood of Toronto's College Street, densely populated with people and their cultures, is also densely populated with noteworthy churches--and other religious buildings, I should add, like Kensington Market's Minsker Synagogue.

I've blogged in the past about the Anglican Saint Stephen-in-the-Fields Church (104 Bellevue Avenue). As the Lost Rivers website says, it's an architectural gem.

St. Stephen’s was built in 1858. Its stained glass windows are among the finest in the city. However, it is not only a wonderful building; it is a force for good, looking after its parishioners and many others in the community. Like many St. Stephen's is one of the many downtown churches that have embraced the mission of caring for the hungry, the naked and the poor. It has services in English, Spanish and French for Caribbean, Latino and African congregations.

[. . .]

St. Stephen's was built in 1857 by Robert Brittain Denison, member of a prominent Toronto family, on his property and at his own expense, the first Anglican Church to be built west of Spadina Avenue in the City of Toronto, to provide " a place of worship in a locality where distance from any place devoted to devotional purposes was inconvenient."

Denison engaged the renowned architect Thomas Fuller and master builder John Worthington to design and build the original structure. It was popularly described as "in the fields" as College Street did not extend west of the University of Toronto when it was built, A footpath led from University Avenue through fields to the church, then actually in the middle of the fields.

St. Stephen-in-the-Fields Anglican Church, 104 Bellevue Avenue
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

St. Georgs Lutheran Church (410 College Street) is located just east of Bathurst Street and Little Italy and offering services in German and in English.

St. Georgs Lutheran Church, 410 College Street
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

College Street United Church (454 College Street) is located on the eastern frontier of Little Italy at College and Bathurst and is notable for its unusual architecture.

Over time attendance fell and it ran into financial difficulties and fell into disrepair. Thus in the 1980s, despite its heritage status, it was decided to demolish much of the church a rebuild it with a condominium on top. The architects of the new building worked to have it be as similar to the old church as possible, copying many of its architectural elements. Money from the 89 unit condo funds the church now located in the lower levels of the building.

College Street United Church, 454 College Street
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

[PHOTO] Three Dufferin Street churches

The major Toronto/York Region north/south axis of Dufferin Street has served me as a boundary marker for as long as I've lived here, separating West Queen Street West from Parkdale, dividing the westernmost extremities of the downtown from the easternmost extremities of western Toronto. As I noticed on a walk with Andrew almost exactly a month ago, Dufferin is a transition zone in itself, with--for instance--its church buildings demonstrating the various population-related transitions that Toronto has enjoyed over the past half-century or so, from a relatively monoethnic population to a multicultural one, from a relatively young demographic pyramid to a considerably older one.

Dufferin Street Baptist Church, located at 1219 Dufferin Street, apparently has a large Hispanic congregation and is also home to the Oasis Dufferin Community Centre, where--among other things--job training seminars are offered to its users.

Dufferin Street Baptist Church, 1219 Dufferin Street
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

St. Hilda's Towers, a combined Anglican Church and retirement home, is located at 2339 Dufferin Street in the midtown.

St. Hilda's Towers
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

The British Methodist Episcopal Christ Church St. James shares its building with the Hispanophone/Lusophone Igreja Metodista Libre de Toronto at 1828 Eglinton Avenue West, at the intersections of Dufferin Street and Eglinton.

College Street United Church, 1828 Eglinton Avenue West
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei