The nearest settlements of any significance were at Goderich, Barrie and Elora.

Bishop John Strachan of Toronto, accompanied by the itinerant missionary Rev'd James Mochridge, visited the village in 1845.  But the villagers for the most part took little interest in the bishop's visit and Strachan was not particularly impressed with what he saw. He trudged back to Toronto believing the settlement at Owen's Sound to be years away from being ready for the placement of an appointed clergyman.

In the autumn of 1846, the Rev'd. Alphonsus William Henry Rose M.A., a graduate of Cambridge University, visited the village and he was so enthralled with the place that he returned the following year to take up permanent residence, possibly without the official sanction of Bishop Strachan.  Rose undertook evangelizing initiatives which hastened the formation of a Church of England congregation in the village.  He believed the area had enormous commercial potential and he took a keen interest in the new business sprouting up in the village.  He travelled extensively throughout the surrounding countryside and devoted time to writing a book about his impressions of the New World.  Bishop Strachan believed a man of Rose's abilities should be put to better use elsewhere in the diocese and, much to the regret of Rose and the villagers, he moved Rose to Guelph in mid 1848. Rose died in Toronto in 1850. In his will he devised three valuable town lots at Sydenham to adherents of the Church of England at Sydenham, Owen's Sound.  The present Saint George's Church stands on these three lots at the northeast corner of 4th Avenue East and 10th Street.

In the spring of 1849, Archdeacon Bethune visited the village at the request of Bishop Strachan.  At a service conducted in the Presbyterian church, the Archdeacon discovered a vibrant Church of England congregation which was large, attentive and ready to provide evidence for a permanent resident clergyman in the village.  On returning to Toronto, the Archdeacon declared that the roads between Sydenham and Toronto were the worst in the province!  After receiving the Archdeacon's report, Strachan moved quickly to make arrangements for an appointment.

During the summer of 1849, Arthur Hill Ringland Mulholland, a promising theology student and a native of County Down, Ireland, arrived in Toronto with his wife and children under the auspices of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Following an examination conducted by Archdeacon Bethune at the Diocesan Divinity College at Cobourg. Mulholland was ordained a deacon by Bishop Strachan on August 19th, 1849 in Saint George's Church Kingston. Strachan sent Mulholland to Sydenham with special license to administer the sacraments and with instructions that his new missionary parish would cover all of what is today Grey and Bruce Counties.

At the same time, Strachan was also making arrangements for a church site in the village. By Order-in-Council of August 31st, 1849, the Governor General Lord Elgin granted two lots on the east side of Boyd street(at the east corner of 5th Avenue East and 10th Street) to the Church Society of the Diocese of Toronto in trust as the site for a church. The grant was free and clear of all patent fees.

Rev'd Mulholland and his family arrived by steamer at the village wharf at Sydenham in the early morning hours of October 8th, 1849. They were greeted by the Gale and LePan families who introduced them around the community and made housing arrangements for them in the village. A week after Mulholland's arrival, at a meeting of the Church of England congregation in the village, a parish was formally organized with Richard Carney J.P. and G.J. Gale the first church wardens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mulholland was ordained a priest by Bishop Strachan on November 17th, 1850 in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Toronto. In a letter written earlier that year, Mr. Carney described Rev'd Mulholland as "an excellent Clergyman. He is zealous and active and diligent in the discharge of his duties and like the Prophets of old who pushed on the Building of the Temple, he is urging on the erection of the Church and is on the ground every day to incite to activity and to keep the people in good humour " But with money very scarce and the cost to complete the building amounting to $200, progress was slow. While the parishioners awaited the opening of the new church on Boyd Street, Rev'd Mulholland conducted services in the best temporary accomodation that could be found.

The parish's first place of worship was a log building on Poulette Street (east side of 2nd Avenue East between 7th and 8th Street) owned by a parishioner, Thomas Hinchcliffe. The building was used as a wagon shop during the week. This arrangement worked well until the fateful Saturday in 1851 when Lord Elgin arrived in the village quite unexpectedly and expressed a desire to attend Church of England services the following day. While the service was in progress, Hinchcliffe arrived on the scene enraged that the man who had approved the contentious Rebellion Losses Bill, two years before, was sitting in his building. The service stopped abruptly and the parish had to find somewhere else to worship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This time Mr. Carney looked for a building that was not owned by a parishioner. He managed to secure the loan of a building located on the northeast corner of 2nd Avenue East and 12th Street and here regular services resumed as though nothing had happened.

Finally the frame church on Boyd Street was completed. Dedicated under the title of Saint George, it was opened for divine services in 1852. There was a sexton, a choir and an organist. John Mills donated a church bell which hung in the belfry.

Initially the parish was enormous covering a huge expanse of sparsely populated wilderness. In addition to his obligations at the parish church in the village, Mullholland conducted regular services at 18 preaching stations. He was known to preach in Sydenham in the morning and in Durham in the evening, and then to return to his home at Sydenham by horseback following the forest trail in the dark. He conducted services in shanties and barns for years before there were any log churches belonging to the Church of England outside the Village. During those early years, the congregation at Sydenham considered themselves fortunate if they had a service once a month during the seasons when it was possible for the rector to reach the distant points of his parish. Mulholland continued to supply this long chain of preaching stations(without any assistance) until 1857 when the Diocese of Huron was set apart from the Diocese of Toronto. Under Bishop Cronyn, Mulholland began to get some relief. As the settlements in the surrounding countryside grew, incumbents were slowly found for the daughter churches Mulholland had established and he was gradually released from his preaching duties outside Owen Sound.

The village of Sydenham was incorporated as the town of Owen Sound in 1857 and with the passage of time the isolated wilderness settlement became a prosperous Great Lakes port. As the town grew it became clear that the congregation was outgrowing the parish church on Boyd Street. The three town lots devised to the parish under Rev'd Rose's will, became the basis for plans to erect a new Saint George's Church.

 

 

 

 

 

The 1881 Saint George's Church

The new parish church, designed by Toronto architect M. B. Aylesford, was opened and dedicated by Bishop Hillmuth on August 7th, 1881. The church was completed at a cost of $12,000.00 and was considered one of the most beautiful in the province. Constructed of stone ashlar in the Gothic style, it had a seating capacity of 500 and featured a tower entrance surmounted by a 142 foot spire. An innovative system of lighting was installed, powered by gasoline, the first of its kind in this part of the country.

The interior plan of the 1881 church was very traditional for Anglican worship. The altar was placed against the east wall in the sanctuary. The choir and organ were in the chancel and the lectern stood in the centre of the chancel. There was a centre aisle. There was also a cross aisle running from the tower doorway that separated the nave into two sections. The north and south transepts had pews on either side of the aisles.

In 1898, our Parish Hall was built, initially to house the Sunday School.

The consecration of the church was celebrated by Bishop Williams on October 31st, 1920.

Over the years, several renovations have taken place. In the 1920's, a new entrance porch, built in the Norman style, was added at the west end of the church. In the 1940's, the Church Rectory was purchased. In the 1960's a large bequest was left to the Church providing the funding to remove this porch, and to add a new narthex entrance and another bay to the west end of the nave. Stone for the addition was obtained from the original quarries near Kingston to match the stone used for the 1881 building. The narthex and renovations were dedicated by Bishop Luxton on December 18th, 1968.

During a period of liturgical revision in the 1960's the chancel was redesigned. The organ and choir were moved to the south transept and the altar was brought forward thereby permitting the celebrant to face the congregation.

During the 1990's, the church grounds were landscaped. The Saint George's Gardens were created with senior citizens in mind, many of whom live in nearby apartment complexes.

Church History

Following completion of the survey of the Owen's Sound area in 1840, pioneers began to settle in the surrounding townships and the village of Sydenham and Owen's Sound began to take shape in the bush along the banks of the Sydenham River.  It was an isolated outpost surrounded by a hundred miles of wilderness.  Conditions were primitive and the roads virtually impassable for most of the year.  The only reliable access to the village was by water.