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Guelph British Methodist Episcopal Church
On July 11, 2025, this plaque was unveiled at Heritage Hall, 83 Essex Street in Guelph. It was then permanently installed at the site following the ceremony.
The bilingual plaque reads as follows:
GUELPH BRITISH METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
A testament to the resilience of the Black community, the Guelph British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church was established in the 1850s by freedom seekers and free Blacks. Many had resided in Wellington County since the 1820s, moving from the Queen’s Bush area to the Essex-Nottingham neighbourhood of Guelph’s welcoming English Methodist community. The growing congregation raised funds to purchase land in 1869 and built a wooden chapel here in 1870. In 1880, they laid the cornerstone and began construction of this limestone chapel. By 1881, Guelph’s Black population numbered 107; the majority resided near the church. Throughout its history, this church played a key role as a meeting place for the Black community, fulfilling the spiritual and social needs of the congregation, providing a safe haven and representing a symbol of freedom. Over the years, ministers included Junius Roberts, Samuel R. Drake, Solomon Lucas and Mabel “Addie” Aylestock — the first female BME minister. In 1975, the church closed due to declining attendance but reopened from 1994-2009. In 2012, the Guelph Black Heritage Society purchased the church, which continues to service the broader community, while honouring the church’s heritage. It is an important symbol of the history of the Black Methodist tradition and long history of Black settlement in Ontario.
LA BRITISH METHODIST CHURCH DE GUELPH
Symbole de la résilience de la communauté noire, la British Methodist Episcopal Church de Guelph est fondée dans les années 1850 par des Noirs en quête de liberté et des Noirs libres. Nombre d’entre eux résident alors dans le comté de Wellington depuis les années 1820, après avoir quitté la région de Queen’s Bush pour s’installer dans le quartier d’Essex-Nottingham, dans l’accueillante communauté méthodiste anglaise de Guelph. De plus en plus nombreuse, la congrégation collecte des fonds pour acheter un terrain en 1869 et y construit une chapelle en bois en 1870. En 1880, la première pierre de l’actuelle chapelle en pierre calcaire est posée. En 1881, la population noire de Guelph compte 107 personnes, qui résident essentiellement près de l’église. Tout au long de son histoire, l’église joue un rôle majeur en tant que lieu de rencontre de la communauté noire : elle pourvoit aux besoins spirituels et sociaux de la congrégation, sert de refuge et incarne la liberté. Les pasteurs qui se succèdent au fil des ans incluent Junius Roberts, Samuel R. Drake, Solomon Lucas et Mabel « Addie » Aylestock, la première femme pasteure de l’église. En 1975, l’église ferme en raison d’une baisse de la fréquentation, mais elle rouvrira ses portes de 1994 à 2009. En 2012, la Guelph Black Heritage Society achète l’église, qui continue aujourd’hui de servir la collectivité et de mettre en valeur le patrimoine de l’édifice. Il s’agit d’un symbole important de la tradition méthodiste noire et de la longue histoire de la présence des personnes noires en Ontario.
Historical background
Overview
People of African descent have resided in the district town (later city) of Guelph and Guelph Township in Wellington County since the area was settled in the late 1820s.[1] The Black population in Wellington County continued to grow to approximately 1,500, both formerly enslaved and free people by the 1840s. The majority had settled in the Queen’s Bush area, the vast unsettled area between Waterloo County and Lake Huron and many later relocated to Guelph.[2] Black families established homesteads, worked in a range of occupations and developed community institutions — including churches like the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Peel Township that was established in the early 1840s.[3] The first Black congregation in Guelph was formed in the 1850s as an African Methodist Episcopal church by former Queen’s Bush inhabitants. In 1856, the British Methodist Episcopal Church Conference was formed and many African Methodist Episcopal churches in Canada West, including the Guelph congregation, became part of it.[4]
The building: A cornerstone
Initially, church services were held in the homes of worshippers. By 1869, the Black Methodist Episcopal church community had grown and had raised enough money to purchase a piece of land to erect a chapel. The trustees and church minister created a fundraising campaign for the building project.[5] In 1870, church members erected a wooden frame-structure church on Market Street (now Waterloo Avenue) with the entrance on Essex Street. The church was called “Bethel.”[6] Ten years later, the congregation laid the foundation of a stone building in June 1880 at 83 Essex Street.
The cornerstone was set on September 17, 1880 in a special ceremony. Some ministers, who were attending the Annual General Conference of the British Methodist Episcopal Church in Toronto attended the ceremony where they led prayers and hymns and read scriptures. An article in the Guelph Mercury and Advertiser newspaper described that “a copy of the Holy Scriptures, Hymn Book of the British Methodist Episcopal Church, copy of the Missionary Messenger — the organ of the church; and copies of the Mercury and Herald" were carefully placed in a compartment of the cornerstone, which was then sealed.[7]
The church was built with local limestone. The structure was 3.7 metres high (12 feet). It took nearly four years to construct and was built to accommodate 300 people. The church cost approximately $2,000 to build.[8] The manse (the church house provided for clergy) was built between the late 1880s and early 1890s using stone. The interior of the manse was plastered and carpentry was installed. It was in use until 1965 when it was demolished.[9]
In a 2006 interview, community historian Melba Jewell, a descendant of early Black settlers in Peel Township and a past church member, gave a detailed description of the interior of the church. Jewell stated that,
The Church had a wide centre aisle, and the pump organ was in the front left corner of the sanctuary with a mirror situated so that the organist could see the congregation. There was a huge black pulpit in the centre of the sanctuary with three large leather chairs for the minister and guests.
In 1927, the church underwent renovations, and an organ was installed. It was a reed chapel organ made by the Sherlock-Manning Piano and Organ Company of London, Ontario. There were two rows of choir pews at the left front sanctuary near the organ, and three more choir pews on the right-hand side of the pulpit on the main floor (where the piano is now located). There was a two-foot-high wooden railing around the sanctuary and communion was observed from a kneeling position. A new communion table was purchased in the 1960s through the efforts of Rev. Ronald Blackwood.
The Church could easily seat a congregation of 200 people. There was a high partition at the back near the front entrance. This area was used as an office and for materials storage. The Church was heated by a wood and coal furnace, and later an oil furnace was installed. In the 1990s, the Church converted from oil to gas heat.
Over the years, the Church was renovated, repainted, and decorated by the members and the congregation. They painted the wooden pews, removing some choir seats, painting the floor, and adding carpeting and wine-coloured velvet runners for the communion table, pulpit, and piano. Improvements were made to the seating arrangements by exchanging the original wooden pews for more modern pews, which were then removed and replaced with metal chairs for more functional use.
A building renovation campaign was sponsored in the early 1960s. The goal was set at $20,000, of which only half was raised through citizen and corporate donations. Consequently, building plans and expectations had to be altered and the following repairs were completed: a new roof, outside front lighting, a new door lock, a lowered ceiling and recessed lighting, new "dusty rose" carpeting, updated electrical wiring and outlets, and a new oak Communion Table inscribed with "In Remembrance of Me," which remains in the building today. The renovations were showcased at an open house event.
Melba Jewell’s recollection provides an invaluable, detailed first-hand view of how the interior of the Guelph British Methodist Episcopal Church looked throughout the 20th century.[10]
The people: Congregation history
The initial congregation consisted primarily of freedom seekers and free Black people from the United States, including those who removed from other areas of Wellington County (Queen’s Bush) after they had settled in the region since the 1840s and relocated to Guelph. There were also people from other parts of Southern Ontario and some who were Canadian-born. The Town of Guelph Directory for 1873 listed the pastor of the “Colored Methodist Church” as Reverend [Robert] Johnson and Louis Bolden, William Thomas, and Eli Buckner as the trustees.[11]
The church was managed by several trustees over its history who were responsible for the upkeep of the church property. The church board was also responsible for securing support for church programs. There were many ministers in the British Methodist Episcopal Church Conference who served the Guelph chapel. Itinerant ministers on the provincial circuits, or stations, of the Conference and later in Montreal and Halifax, were assigned to churches like Guelph by the bishop of the conference. Throughout the history of the church, many ministers led the congregation.
Ministers who served the Guelph British Methodist Episcopal Church
1869 George Richard Blount
1870 Thomas Jefferson
1871 Solomon Peter Hale
1873-76 Robert Johnson
1876-78 Charles Mayo
1878-79 James H. Buckner
1879-81 Junius B. Roberts
1881 B.C. Moore
1881-82 Junius B. Roberts
1882-83 Thomas Collins
1883-84 Benjamin Steward
1884-85 W. Smith
1885 Pastorate vacant
1886-87 D. Andrew Miller
1887-89 Rev. Townsend
1889-91 William T. Minter
1891 Dr. Thomas Clement Oliver, D.D.
1894–96 W.H. Davis and William Leburtis
1896 J. Davidson
1896 Samuel R. Drake
1896-97 Samuel G. Lawson
1897-98 Solomon A. Lucas
1898-1900 Peter Brooks
1900 William Leburtis
1900 Peter Brooks
1901-02 Joseph Matison Jackson
1903 Daniel R. Lucas
1904-05 Samuel B. Jones
1906 John S. Brooks
1907-08 Thomas Henry Slater
1908-09 E.M. King
1909 Rev. Snowden
1909-11 Solomon A. Lucas
1912 W.C. Washington
1915 William H. Jones
1916 Thomas H. Slater
1917 Seth D. Smith
1915-17 Solomon Alexander Lucas
1918-19 Albert Robert Plummer
1919 Daniel R. Lucas
1920 Wesley P. Wright
1921 T.P. King
1923 T.H. Jackson
1924 Samuel R. Drake
1925 J. Alfred Johnson
1964 Mabel Adeline “Addie” Aylestock
1975-94 Church closed
1994-2009 Erica Davis
List compiled from British Methodist Episcopal Annual Conference Minutes and Blood in the Mortar by Jerry Prager.
Church ministers not only met the spiritual needs of congregants, but many were also teachers, community leaders and anti-slavery activists. The number of registered church members varied throughout the years and were generally modest, averaging between 15 and 30 from 1869 to the turn of the 20th century.[12]
Regular visitors were also always in attendance and welcomed at weekly church services. Two worship services were held on Sundays, one in the morning and one in the evening. There was also Sunday school for young people that taught lessons from the Bible as well as literacy skills. The ministers delivered sermons, hymnals and spirituals and gospel songs were sung by the choir and among the attendees. The sacrament of communion was celebrated on the first Sunday of every month. After services, members gathered for meals and fellowship. Prayer meetings were held on Thursday evenings. The ministers performed baptisms, weddings and funerals with church and community members in attendance.
In the years following the building of the church, an enclave of Black households formed in the vicinity of the church bounded by Essex, Durham, Manchester and Devonshire streets. According to the 1881 census, Guelph’s Black population numbered 107, and two-thirds of the Black residents lived in this area. The Guelph British Methodist Episcopal Church and its community continued to thrive.[13]
The Guelph British Methodist Episcopal Church was part of a larger church and social community in the British Methodist Episcopal Conference. The Guelph British Methodist Episcopal Church participated in the annual General Conventions and in 1909 hosted the 53rd annual gathering.
Women of the church
Women served the church in a variety of integral roles. They taught Sabbath School, led the choir, participated in local and foreign missionary work, formed charities, organized fundraising, led social groups for youth and prepared food for church gatherings. Many women gave of their time — like Melissa Hannah Smith who was the organist of the church and worked with other women in the congregation to operate the weekly Sabbath School. Together, they organized the Young People’s Societies Conference that was part of the annual British Methodist Episcopal church conferences since 1898. In 1898, Melissa Smith and Ellen Lawson were designated legal delegates to the British Methodist Episcopal Convention held in Toronto. Rosetta Wilson, Annie Wilson, Jane Sheffield and Harriet Sheffield gave regular donations at the British Methodist Episcopal Conferences in support of various funds.
Some women became involved in preaching. Two women were clergy of the Guelph British Methodist Episcopal church during its history. Mabel Adeline “Addie” Aylestock was the first female minister to be ordained at the British Methodist Episcopal Church in 1951.[14] Addie Aylestock was appointed to the Guelph British Methodist Episcopal Church in 1964, after the church had been without a minister for a few years. She played a pivotal role in rebuilding the congregation.[15] In 1994, Erica Davis became the pastor of a new congregation after the church had been closed since the 1970s. She served as the minister until the congregation dissolved in 2009.[16]
A social space
The church was more than a place of worship. It was the centre of the Black community. It offered programs that provided support, helped to teach life skills and literacy and co-ordinated events for the community to socialize. There was a library in the church. In the 1940s, a weekly youth program was held on Friday evenings that regularly attracted nearly 50 young people. They read Bible verses, sang gospel songs, watched movies and ate snacks. From 1972-75, the Big Sister Association of Guelph operated in the Guelph British Methodist Episcopal Church. The group provided guidance, mentorship and support to young women of all backgrounds in the community.[17]
Church members and leadership organized and hosted a range of social events. For example, congregants and the wider community commemorated Emancipation Day by hosting the annual tradition and participating in events held at different locales. The occasion marked the abolition of slavery in British colonies with the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act on August 1, 1834. Celebrants attended church services at the many Black churches — including the Guelph British Methodist Episcopal Church — followed by street parades and a program of speakers, performances and dinner.[18] Other social events included concerts and socials.
A new era
By 1975, church membership and attendance dwindled, resulting in its closure. The British Methodist Episcopal Church Conference retained ownership of the church and rented it to various organizations and religious groups. On October 23, 1994, a new British Methodist Episcopal congregation held an official re-opening service under the leadership of Pastor Erica Davis. They shared the facility with a local Missionary Baptist Church group who contributed to the renovation of the exterior of the building and updated the décor in the interior. Fifteen years later, in the fall of 2011, the British Methodist Episcopal Church Conference put the church building up for sale. Community members came together to form a board — the Guelph Black Heritage Foundation — and purchased the building in December 2012 to preserve it. They established the Guelph Black Heritage Society, which operates Heritage Hall in the former church.
The historical significance of the Guelph British Methodist Episcopal Church
In 2013, the building was designated as a municipal heritage site. The church is an 1880s-era stone structure, a relic of buildings constructed in this neighbourhood at that time.[19] In 2020, the 150th anniversary of the construction of the Guelph British Methodist Episcopal Church was recognized.
The establishment of Black religious institutions like the Guelph British Methodist Episcopal Church played an important role in fulfilling the spiritual and social needs of Black communities. The church embodied the self-determination for Black inhabitants of various origins who exercised their agency, rights and freedoms. The still-standing structure is a testament to the resilience, drive and vision of the Black community. It is also an important symbol of the history of the Black Methodist tradition in Canada and a testament to the long history of Black settlement in Guelph, in Wellington County and in Ontario more broadly. The heritage site continues to serve the wider Guelph community in its new capacity, while honouring its rich history.
The Ontario Heritage Trust gratefully acknowledges the research of Natasha Henry-Dixon in preparing this paper.
© Ontario Heritage Trust, 2025
[1] The Founding of Guelph, Ontario Heritage Trust, accessed November 8, 2024 https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/plaques/founding-of-guelph; Robin W. Winks, Winks, The Blacks in Canada: A History. 2nd ed. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003), p. 146.
[2] Linda Brown-Kubisch, The Queen’s Bush Settlement: Black Pioneers, 1839-1865. Dundurn, 2004.
[3] Brown-Kubisch, The Queen’s Bush Settlement, pp. 61-62.
[4] African Methodist Episcopal (AME) churches were established in Ontario in the 1820s, extending out of the formation of the Black evangelical denomination. In 1828, at the General Conference in New York, it was reported that four AME churches were in operation in Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) in the towns of Malden and Gambia in Essex County, Fort Erie and Niagara. The number of congregations and members grew with the increase in the freedom-seeker population resulting in the formation of a Canada Conference in 1840. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 raised concerns of safety for Canadian AME church members. Most of the AME church members in Canada, freedom seekers and free Black people, refused to attend General Conferences in the United States because of the law. Canadian AME members increasingly also wanted to identify more closely with Britain and the British colony that granted them their freedom and thus proposed the creation of a distinct Canadian Conference. In September 1856, at the Canadian General Conference of the AME church held in Chatham, the churches requested to separate from the American AME General Congress and to establish an independent denomination that embodied their ideals. It was passed and the British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church Conference was formed. Both connections, the BME and the AME, agreed to maintain a relationship. See William H. Jones, “Remarks Concerning the Origin of the BME Church,” Minutes of the Eighteenth Annual General Conference of the AME Church in the Province of Canada, Begun at Chatham, September 29, 1856, Wilberforce University Library and Archives.
[5] Guelph Mercury, January 18, 1869.
[6] Bethel was a common name of Black Methodist Episcopal churches. The African Methodist Episcopal Church (often called Bethel Methodists) is a Black denomination of the Methodist church that was established during the late 18th century.
[7] Prager, Blood in the Mortar, p. 3.
[8] Guelph Mercury, January 18, 1869; Richard R. Wright, Centennial Encyclopaedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Containing Principally the Biographies of the Men and Women, Both Ministers and Laymen, Whose Labors during a Hundred Years, Helped Make the A. M. E. Church What It Is. (Philadelphia: Book Concern of the A. M. E. Church, 1916), p. 73; Jerry Prager, Blood in the Mortar: Freedom in Stone (Jerry Prager, 2015), p. 3; “How the History of the BME Church Brings Guelph’s Black Community Together 130 Years Later,” The Black Past in Guelph: Remembered and Reclaimed, 2019, https://blackpastinguelph.com/2018/11/24/how-the-history-of-the-bme-church-brings-guelphs-black-community-together-130-years-later; Prager, Blood in the Mortar, p. 9. William Slater, the quarry owner and stone cutter, was awarded the contract to construct the church. As the architect, he supervised the stonework completed by members of the church while a local carpenter did the woodwork.
[9] Jerry Prager, “Old Methodist church embodies a lot of Guelph history,” The Recorder, February 29, 2016.
[10] Melba Jewell, “The British Methodist Episcopal Church in Guelph,” Historic Guelph, vol. 45, 2006, Guelph Historical Society, accessed November 29, 2024, https://www.guelphhistoricalsociety.ca/archives/historic-guelph/volume-45/the-british-methodist-episcopal-church-in-guelph. Melba Jewell was born in 1934 to Percy Cornelius Jewell and Margaret Ida Brooks Jewell.
[11] Joseph Hacking, Directory of the Town of Guelph, 1873. Guelph: Guelph Advertiser, 1873.
[12] Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Conference of the British Methodist Episcopal Church of the Dominion of Canada, Held at London, June 11th to June 20th, 1871, Wilberforce University Library and Archives; Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Conference of the British Methodist Episcopal Church of the Province of Ontario, Held at Amherstburg, May 27th to June 6th, 1871, Wilberforce University Library and Archives; Minutes of the Seventeenth Session of the Annual General Conference of the British Methodist Episcopal Church Held at St. Catharines, Ont., June 21st to June 30th, 1873, Wilberforce University Library and Archives; Minutes of the Eighteenth Annual General Conference of the British Methodist Episcopal Church Held at Hamilton, Ont., May 30th to June 9th, 1874, Wilberforce University Library and Archives; Minutes of the Nineteenth Annual General Conference of the British Methodist Episcopal Church Held at Buxton, Ont., May 29th to June 7th, 1875, Wilberforce University Library and Archives; Minutes of the Twentieth Annual General Conference of the British Methodist Episcopal Church Held at Toronto, Ont., May 27th to June 5th, 1876, Wilberforce University Library and Archives; Minutes of the Twenty-First of the Ontario District Annual Conference of the British Methodist Episcopal Church Held at Dresden, Ont., June 16th to June 24th, 1877, Wilberforce University Library and Archives; Minutes of the Twenty-Second Annual Session of the Ontario District Annual Conference of the British Methodist Episcopal Church Held at Windsor, Ont., June 29th to July 8th, 1878, Wilberforce University Library and Archives; Minutes of the Twenty-Third Annual Session of the Ontario District Annual Conference of the British Methodist Episcopal Church Held at London, Ont., May 1879, Wilberforce University Library and Archives; Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Annual Session of the Ontario District Annual Conference of the British Methodist Episcopal Church of the Dominion of Canada, Held at Chatham, June 12 to 21st, 1880. Wilberforce University Library and Archives, Wilberforce University Library and Archives; Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Annual Session of the Ontario District Annual Conference of the British Methodist Episcopal Church of the Dominion of Canada, held at Hamilton, June 11th to June 20th, 1881, Wilberforce University Library and Archives.
[13] Leo Johnson, "A History of Guelph, 1827-1927," Guelph Historical Society (Guelph, Ontario, 1977), p. 229 as cited in Melba Jewell, “The British Methodist Episcopal Church in Guelph,” Historic Guelph, vol. 45, 2006, Guelph Historical Society.
[14] Aylestock was also the second Canadian-born Black woman to be ordained as a church minister. She organized several community congregations in Ontario and Nova Scotia. Jennie Johnson was the first. See Claire Prieto, Older, Stronger, Wiser, National Film Board, 2007 and Nina Reid-Maroney, The Reverend Jennie Johnson and African Canadian History, 1868-1967 (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2013).
[15] Dorothy Shadd Shreve, The AfriCanadian church: A Stabilizer. Jordan Station: Paideia Press, 1983.
[16] “Old Methodist church embodies a lot of Guelph history,” The Recorder, February 29, 2016.
[17] Jewell, “The BME Church in Guelph.”
[18] Natasha Henry, Emancipation Day: Celebrating Freedom in Canada (Toronto: Dundurn, 2010); Natasha Henry, Talking About Freedom: Celebrating Emancipation Day in Canada (Toronto: Dundurn, 2012).
[19] Jerry Prager, Blood in the Mortar: Freedom in Stone (Jerry Prager, 2015), p. 8.