Queen's Road: 1957-1979
The building purchased by the St. John’s congregation in 1957 had previously belonged to the Congregational church. Built in 1895 to replace the old Congregational Stone Chapel that was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1892, the Queen’s Road church was a landmark among the churches of downtown St. John’s. Its steeple tower held a light that was used for navigational purposes to guide ships through the Narrows into St. John’s Harbour, providing many a preacher with a good sermon illustration about the church’s role as a “guiding light” in the community.
Though the building was a beautiful one and lives on in the memories of those who attended church there for more than 20 years, the cost of keeping up this heritage structure proved too heavy for the congregation to bear. It was during Pastor Dennis Uffindell’s time in leadership that the building was sold, and the church’s home moved to the more modest building on Aldershot Street, formerly Bethesda Pentecostal Church, which is home to the St. John’s congregation today.
The Queen’s Road building was sold to a private developer. Today the building holds condominiums, although the outside retains its church-like appearance.
This written history and photos of the Adventist Church in St. John’s is great. Thank you for the ungoing efforts in this regard. I suggest one correction to the names of singers at the Queen’s Road Church: Mrs. Trenchard’s first name was Nellie not Millie. She was my grandmother.
Thank you for that update, Warren! We were given that photo with a list of people (or guesses at who the people were) in it, by a church member, and we’re glad to have that correction on your grandmother’s name. The caption has been edited to reflect this.
This was a childhood church for me and I was baptized there by Pastor Lee. Pastor Wessman was my pastor at the time. May Holloway was my cousin and Rosie Dowden was my attendant when I was baptized at the age of 11. I am 77 now and still have fond memories of that church. Loved it.