Facebook Group: Nova Scotia - Memories of Days Gone - TopicsExpress



          

Facebook Group: Nova Scotia - Memories of Days Gone By https://facebook/groups/NovaScotiaMemoriesOfDaysGoneBy/ Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada The North Baptist Church – Gottingen Street Photo from 50th Anniversary Pamphlet, 1898 Construction of the North Baptist Church on Gottingen street began in the latter part of 1866 and was well under way when mention of it first appeared in the local newspapers in January 1867 being described as a “handsome edifice”. The congregation that formed this new church had originally organized in 1848 made up of members from Granville Street Baptist Church (the precursor to today’s First Baptist Church) holding meetings in and around the North End in places such as McIntyre’s Hall on Gottingen street and the Harmonic Hall on Maitland street. In 1849 the congregation purchased land on Cornwallis street and built a church for $2660 which was used for nearly 18 years before the congregation grew too large for the building. That original building would eventually become the Sons of Temperance Hall. The Gottingen street building opened in 1868 and was completely finished in 1869 when the main “audience room” was officially dedicated. The building was significantly modified in 1885 at a cost of nearly $4500 so as to increase the seating and also to fix issues that the 1866-68 building had with acoustics. The building pictured above is the remodeled structure of 1885. A reference to the remodeling is made in the July 2, 1886 edition of the newspaper The Critic where in it is mentioned that, “the building of the North Baptist Church, of this city, is undergoing extensive repairs, both inside and out. When finished, it is expected to be much more comfortable, pleasant and commodious.” The congregation of the North Baptist Church seemed to flourish through the 1890s and early 1900s but by the early 1920s the numbers within the congregation seem to have dwindled. Due to the small number of people it appears that the congregation made the decision to abandon the building and sell it off. One interesting point about the North Baptist Church building is that the first mention of the building in any public document is in the Hansard for the Nova Scotia Legislature where MLAs agreed to pass an amendment to the Act to limit the erection of wooden buildings within the City of Halifax which was a piece of legislation passed in response to the high rate of fires within the city. The amendment was made to the Act in order to exempt the North Baptist Church and its congregation from the rules which prevented the construction of wooden buildings in the city. Interestingly, despite this piece of legislation existing it had no way of preventing the largest fire in Halifax’s history which took place at 9 o’clock at night on 9 September 1859 which burned four acres of the city’s downtown, killing two people, and destroying sixty buildings. Thanks Old Northend https://oldnorthend.wordpress/2012/11/19/the-north-baptist-church-gottingen-street/#more-49 JohnTWallace
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 11:59:30 +0000

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