What is today known as Calvin Presbyterian Church began after Church Union in 1925, but there has been a Presbyterian congregation on "the Hill" since 1881. What is now Deer Park United Church at the corner of Foxbar and St. Clair Avenue was originally built in 1911 as Deer Park Presbyterian.
In 1925, at the time of Church Union, the members of the Deer Park church who wished to continue to worship as Presbyterians separated from the Deer Park church and held their first service as the Hill District Presbyterian Church on January 18, 1925, in Queen's Royal Theatre on Yonge Street, and then later at what is now Brown's School Community Centre at Avenue Road and St. Clair.
The congregation was without funds, a building, or a minister and were not even recognized as a congregation until after the effective date of Union on June 10, 1925. But immediately after that date, they attacked the twin problems of a building and a minister; a Building committee was set up to look into the buying of property, and a search committee was set up to find and call a minister.
Beginnings
On January 30, the Rev. Joseph Wasson, his wife and their small son sailed for Canada and on February 11, he was inducted by the Rev. J.B. Paulin in St. Paul's Presbyterian Church. Rev. Wasson preached his first sermon for the congregation on February 14, 1926.
Next: Calvin's Early Years
On November 23, 1925, the congregation sent an unanimous call to the Rev. Joseph Wasson of Randalstown, Northern Ireland. At the congregation's first Annual Meeting held on January 20, 1926, they decided to leave the final decision of a building site until the new minister arrived. And they did not have long to wait.