Asbury & West United Church

About

Asbury & West United Church is a United Church of Canada church in the Bathurst and Lawrence area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The congregation has one of the longest continual histories of any in Toronto. It traces its history back to 1812 and meetings of small groups of Methodist settlers in what was an area being newly settled by Europeans.

The first services were held in the farmhouse of Henry Mulholland, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Battle of Lundy's Lane. He first came to Canada from Ireland in 1806, settling in the area that would later be named Henry Farm after him. He later moved further west to what is now the Bathurst and Lawrence area.

The original small congregation was served by circuit preachers who rode out of the small nearby village of Eglinton, Ontario. In 1817 the congregation began to hold services in a new one room schoolhouse. Mulholland began to clear land for a permanent church building, but he died in the 1833 sinking of the Lady of the Lake.

His widow, Jane, donated the land that was being cleared to the church, and a small wooden chapel was erected. The church was named after Francis Asbury, an early Methodist leader. This chapel was destroyed by...