Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
In 1885 about one hundred people from various local churches joined together under the leadership of Rev. William Cuthbertson, M.A., founding pastor, to form the first congregational church in Woodstock. The organizational meeting of this fledgling church was held in the Town Council Chamber and the first public services were conducted in the Court House in 1885. Two years later a new building was dedicated at 24 Light Street on land donated by Mrs. John C. Ross. Unfortunately, financial problems in the early 1890s led to the pastor’s resignation, but the congregation soon recovered. In 1917, ownership of the building was transferred to the Canada Congregational Missionary Society, who subsequently sold it to the Woodstock Board of Education in 1919. Known as Education Memorial Hall, the building was used as a school auditorium and housed up to four Central Public School classrooms.
In 1941, the Woodstock Pentecostal Assembly purchased the building and changed the name to Calvary Church. The Church remained on Light Street, until March 2003 when it moved to 65 Lansdowne Avenue. In 2020, it changed its name to Movement Church.
Although it received a heritage designation in February 1994, the church, constructed in the Gothic Revival style, located at 24 Light Street, was demolished in the summer of 2005.
Places
24 Light Street, Woodstock, Ontario