Bradford United Church is located at 66 Barrie St. The structure in this photo was built in 1865 in the Gothic Revival style. There was an original church built on this site in 1851.
The 1½-storey building has a rectangular plan, tall and narrow window openings, and a steeply-pitched, gable roof. The enclosed narthex is a recent addition. It is not considered to be consistent with the original style. Tall, gothic-style, trefoil arched openings light the nave. A round, rose window (with muntins set in the shape of a cross) is set into the gable portion of the façade. These cross-shaped muntins replace the original four-leaf clover muntins. The vergeboard has small, gothic arches. Octagonal pinnacles are found at each of the four corners. These pinnacles were originally topped with ornamental spires. Shallow buttresses extending the full height of the façade divide it into three parts. The trefoil arch and the three-part façade refer to the Trinity. There is brick masonry construction with stucco cladding and a parged, stone foundation. The original dichromatic brick cladding is concealed under the stucco cladding. Originally, the underlying red brick walls had buff-coloured brick buttresses and framing at the door and window openings. According to the 2000 inventory, the building is in good condition with some original features. (1, 3, 4)

The Bradford Presbyterian Church was once located at 81 John St. West (on the northwest corner of Church and John Streets). A Presbyterian church in Bradford dates back to 1856. The original frame building was built on this site and used until 1893. At that time it was sold to the Anglican Church and moved a short distance north to be used as the Parish Hall. The structure seen in this photo (from 1996) was designed in the Romanesque style by Siddell Baker Architects in Toronto. It was constructed in 1893 for $5,000 by local builder Dougald (George) MacDonald. George was able to do short-hand blueprints and he was also the Sunday school teacher. The church pipe organ was installed in 1915 (with a portion of it funded by the Carnegie Foundation). A seven-foot section of interior, cornice molding fell off and crashed through some front seating and the floor and landed in the basement in 1937. It was rediscovered years later in George MacDonald’s barn.
The 1½-storey building had a modified, cruciform plan with an apse, narthex, and square and polygonal entrance towers. There was a steeply-pitched, gable roof with pyramidal and polygonal roofs on the towers. This structure was a complex massing of heavy, simple forms, each of which had a clear function. The main entrance was through a large, round-arched doorway with a crescent-shaped transom light and a heavy, panelled, wood door. It was set into a high, square tower at the southeast corner of the church and it marked the site as a landmark within the town. Tall, narrow, window openings had thin windows with a vertical emphasis. Some secondary windows were set in rectangular openings (but with the same narrow proportions). Windows having round-arched openings of various sizes in groups, and as singles, lit the nave. The simplicity of this church and the lack of typical Romanesque Revival details such as heavy, stone stringcourses and lintels gave the church a Norman feel with its squared tower and massive walls. Square pinnacles topped the four corners of the entrance tower. The building had masonry construction with brick cladding and a cut-stone foundation. Len Saint, a local stone mason and brick layer, did the plastering for the church. There were metal panels on the steeple and tower roofs. According to the 2000 inventory, the church was in excellent condition with many original features.
The congregation moved to St. John’s Presbyterian Church which was located on the Middleton Sideroad (circa 2004). Trinity Anglican Church purchased the old Presbyterian Church building and land in 2004 and the building was demolished in 2005 to provide additional parking for the congregation of Trinity Anglican Church. (1, 3, 4, Trinity Anglican Church Bradford website)

Mount Pleasant, aka Botchtown;
Mount Pleasant was the name Gilbert Robinson chose for his stately home on the north half of lot 15 con. 8 in West Gwillimbury. The name spilled over to the adjacent hamlet that grew up at the corner of the 9th line and the Penetang Road (Yonge Street), comprised of a blacksmith shop, hotel, general store, gas station and a school. Nearby a Wesleyan Methodist church, a brickyard, and grist mill and saw mills owned by Mark Scanlon and John Thorpe. South of the hamlet, a hillside spring provided refreshment for weary travellers, man and beast.

circa 1840

"In loving memory of my grandparents Andrew Bell 1827-1912 and his wife Sarah Balmer 1823-1898, Erected by Balmer Neilly"
Plaque at the gate of St John's Presbyterian Church in Coulson's Hill

View of Church Street looking south. To the right is Trinity Anglican Church, and further down is St. John's Presbyterian Church. St John's was demolished and relocated to 10th Sideroad in 2003, and the site became Trinity's parking lot and expansion area.

Detail of the left side of statue, featuring the Georgina Church, circa 1796