How it all started...
Our congregation has roots back to at least 1838 when Wesleyan Methodists were meeting in what was then known as Seneca Village (on the north bank of the Grand River at the east side of the Caledonia we know today). A frame chapel was raised in 1844 on King William St. at Tuscarora St. (where only a cemetery remains) although the interior is said to have not been fully finished until funds were raised in 1851. Meanwhile, a Methodist New Connexion congregation was also active in the developing village of Caledonia by early 1845, eventually erecting a brick Gothic church at McKenzie Rd. & Haddington Streets. However, following the union of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and the Methodist New Connexion Church in 1874, the joined congregations met in the Seneca building before deciding to build a new, more central church on Caithness St. East at Banff St.
The cornerstone for the brick Methodist Church at the centre of the building now known as Grace United Church was laid on the 25th of September, 1877. When the new building officially opened Sunday, February 3, 1878, Caledonia was part of a circuit that included the Methodist communities at Unity, York, Fisher's, Seneca West, Zion, and Indiana, meaning the minister only preached in Caledonia once a month, with local "class leaders" responsible for Bible study and prayer meetings.
Coming together...
In 1884, a union of the Bible Christian Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, the Methodist Church of Canada and the Primitive Methodists, created what was known as the Methodist Church of Canada for the rest of its existence. In 1922, the Caledonia congregation voted to identify themselves as "Grace Methodist Church." Then in 1925, the Methodist Church of Canada joined most of the Presbyterian Church of Canada and the Congregational Church Union of Canada to form the United Church of Canada. This created the larger and stronger congregation of Grace United Church, despite about a third of the Presbyterians in Caledonia electing to continue in their own church on Argyle St. North.
As the community grew in numbers, the facilities of the existing building showed a need to be both expanded and improved. The congregation experimented with electric and acetylene gas lighting systems while the original building footprint stood otherwise untouched until 1905, when an addition was made to the north end. The tower and two matching stairways were added on the south end in 1909. The original memorial tower carillon was installed in 1943 -- when celebrations were held to mark 100 years since construction began on the original frame chapel in Seneca.
Expanding the community...
In 1948, Unity United Church, which had continued to share a minister with Grace as a two-point pastoral charge dating back to 1877, ceased holding weekly services. Many remaining members began attending at Grace. In order to accommodate the expanding congregation in the growing town, an addition was erected adjacent to the eastern side of the original brick building and dedicated to the Glory of God on March 20, 1955. The new addition/new wing housed an enlarged sanctuary and Sunday School rooms, a parlour, minister's vestry and a modern kitchen with a furnace room containing two (then) modern oil furnaces,. Thanks to the addition, the seating capacity of the sanctuary was increased by 50%. On October 23, 1960 a new Christian Education Wing on the north end of the building was opened and dedicated, including more classrooms and a large Fellowship Hall. A vertical lift (elevator) was installed in 1984 and in 1990 an infrared system for the hearing impaired added. The building was made further accessible in 2015 with the installation of an automatic door at the Banff St. entrance.
