We had no church of our own for our first 21 years. From 1925-29 we usually rented, at a rate of $5 per Sunday, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on Glen Morris Street. When St. Paul’s merged with First Lutheran on Bond Street in 1929 we tagged along and rented First Lutheran Church which we rented for $6 per Sunday although they first asked for $10 per Sunday. (Our services were held in the afternoon except in the summer when we met early in the morning. ) We did attempt to buy the church on Glen Morris and considered buying the Bond Street church when these were put up for sale. There was disappointment in the fact that we didn’t obtain the Glen Morris church and in the way we had been treated in the negotiations, but now we see God’s leading in this, as the burden of a church mortgage may have proven unbearable during the depression years. The congregation did buy a parsonage on Sherbourne Street in 1931, sold it and bought a larger one on Woodlawn Avenue in 1937. These investments were sound and even profitable. The houses were large and the congregation used the main floor for evening services, weekday meetings, and weddings, while the second floor was the parsonage for the Pastor Bondo family.In 1932, First Lutheran Church decided to remodel rather than re-locate and then also decided that the sanctuary would no longer be available to us. For a few months we crowded into the Sherbourne Street parsonage for our services until the pastor’s son made a most providential discovery. The discovery was – The Church of the Deaf on Wellesley Streetwas available for rent, and on Sunday mornings, since they operated by choice an afternoon prograin. This spacious church served as our facility for worship and large meetings from 1932-48, a longer period than we have used either of the two buildings at Lawrence Avenue Road.The ever present desire to have an appropriate place of worship of our own started to become a reality in 1943. A building fund started in the Spring reached $8500 by year’s end and this in a congregation’s whose annual budget had never exceeded $4000. In 1944 committees went to work. A study indicated that the majority of members lived north of Eglinton and West of Yonge and then our present property was discovered and put to the congregation for a decision to purchase. The vote was 53-12, a large majority in favor but also indicating some opposition to having the church located so far from the homes of some of the down-town members. The building committee worked hard in fund-raising, the sale of the old property, and working with the architect in design of the proposed first unit and parsonage. A monthly newsletter, “The Church Builder” was mailed out to 350 addresses during this time to keep all informed and enthusiastic.
Construction began in July 1947 with the cornerstone laying in September. In April 1948, the new parsonage was occupied by our newly arrived Pastor Christensen. September 12, 1948 was the memorable day of church dedication. Rev. K.M. Matthiessen, the synod’s Home Mission director and our benefactor preached at an English service and Pastor Bondo returned for the occasion and preached at a Danish Service.
Although the first unit was designed as a parish hall, it had a very churchly appearance, and with the chancel furnishings crafted by Aksel Jespersen, we felt we had a building that accommodated our Lutheran style of worship. The congregation was pleased with the design and the affordability of the plan to finance it. The building was debt free in 7 years (1955).
Original Credits Carl Larson, Philip & Irene Jorgensen