First Baptist Church is a prominent Baptist church in downtown Ottawa, Canada. It is part of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec.
The church was first founded in 1857, the first Baptist congregation in Ottawa. The current church, prominently located at 140 Laurier Avenue West, at the corner of Elgin Street and Laurier Avenue, was designed by architect James Mather and constructed 1877-8. James Mather (Free Press, 4 March 1878, 1, descrip.; Canadian Illustrated News, xviii, 9 Nov. 1878, 290-91, 300, illus. & descrip.)]
The cornerstone was laid by then Prime Minister, Alexander Mackenzie. As a Baptist, Mackenzie worshiped at the church when he was in Ottawa after services began in 1878.
The church was expanded in 1916, and significantly renovated in 1928. In 1966-1967, to celebrate Canada's Centennial, a massive organ was installed. From 1999 to 2002, significant restoration work was undertaken.
The congregation has remained in the downtown area, and over the years, supported the establishment of new congregations, including McPhail Memorial (1896), Fifth Avenue in The Glebe (1899), and more recently, Kanata, and Bilberry Creek in Orleans.
Famous quotes containing the words baptist and/or church:
“I am perhaps being a bit facetious but if some of my good Baptist brethren in Georgia had done a little preaching from the pulpit against the K.K.K. in the ‘20s, I would have a little more genuine American respect for their Christianity!”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“If Jesus, or his likeness, should now visit the earth, what church of the many which now go by his name would he enter? Or, if tempted by curiosity, he should incline to look into all, which do you think would not shut the door in his face?... It seems to me ... that as one who loved peace, taught industry, equality, union, and love, one towards another, Jesus were he alive at this day, would recommend you to come out of your churches of faith, and to gather into schools of knowledge.”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)