Photos

This large church was built between 1875 – 1893 according to the design of a young Irish immigrant architect, who is described on a plaque in the front of the church as follows:

“Joseph Connolly 1840-1904 - This prominent Ontario architect was born in Ireland and received his professional training there under J. J. McCarthy, a leading nineteenth century Catholic church architect. By the early 1860s Connolly had settled at Toronto where he soon established a special practice designing buildings for the burgeoning Roman Catholic community across Ontario. This church, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (1876), in the style of the thirteenth century French Gothic, is one of the earliest known structures, and is widely considered to be his finest. Among the other religious buildings Connolly designed are the James Street Baptist Church (1879) in Hamilton, one of his few Protestant structures, and St. Peter's Cathedral Basilica in London (1880). Connolly also designed industrial and residential buildings as part of his extensive practice.”

I put two closeup views of the decorative carvings on the front facade of the church into the Workshop.

This church is a National Historic Site of Canada.

An earlier picture of the church from a different POV is here.