Generosity of a Founding Family

Several generations of the Crang family were builders of homes and businesses in this neighbourhood. They also were very active in the church in the early 1900s. Mrs. Jethro Crang formed a group to aid in mission work (mainly in China and Japan) and helped with Christian education for young people. 

Jethro Crang donated the pipe organ in memory of his mother, Tryphena Jane Crang, and his wife, Elizabeth Rebecca Goulding Crang. The organ, with pipes in two chambers behind the altar, was built by the Woodstock Pipe Organ Builders.

​

Stepping in when banks wouldn't lend

In 1911, as the market gardens along St. Clair were subdivided into lots for homes, a new Sunday School was needed as enrolment topped 300 children. As the congregation prepared to build, the First World War broke out. Banks then cracked down on granting mortgages amid a financial panic at the start of the war.

​

Jethro Crang had won the contract to build the Sunday School. He convinced his workers to accept half pay until the roof was on the building and the bank would grant a mortgage. The structure they built and opened in 1915 is currently activity rooms at back of the church.