Brief Church History

Built in 1870 as Church Street Methodist.
1890 addition completed and renamed The Methodist Church.
In 1925 became The Trinity United Church.

St. Thomas, MCR Rail Trestle

Built in 1929 on the site of two previous rail trestles dating as far back as 1871, the trestle spans 1300 meters of the Kettle Creek valley at the west end of The City Of St. Thomas, Ontario. The towering structure was built to withstand the weight of two full steam locomotives on separate tracks, a major engineering achievement of its time. It was originally built for the Michigan Central Railway, which traversed Southwestern Ontario from Detroit to Buffalo. The rail corridor is no longer in use and the bridge along with four kilometres of the corridor has been purchased with the intent of developing it into Canada’s first elevated park.

Octagon House

Designed by the Rev. W.H. Heu de Bourk as a parsonage for the Congregational church. The door of this octagonal house is not in the center of the veranda, but off to one side. Located in Bowmanville, Ontario, the Octagon was built in 1864 by the trustees of the Congregational Church as a parsonage for Reverend and Mrs .Thomas Reikie. By 1900 the congregation had declined and the house was sold to photographer, Henry Tait. Five years later Henry sold the house to his brother Archie, a well known grocer who was a Councillor for many years and then a Mayor from 1905-1906.

Ajax Steam Plant

This photo has been sitting in my collection since March 3, 2011. It's the Ajax Steam Plant used for generating electric power. It was built in 1941 during WWII to provide the steam heat vital to the production lines of the Defence Industries Limited shell filling plant. As late as the mid 1950's, the plant was still supplying steam to much of the community. Currently being redeveloped as a district energy facility, the Index Energy Steam Plant is one of the key projects in the development of the New Downtown Ajax.

Key Elements of the Index Energy Steam Plant

• Modern co-generation facility producing electricity, steam, and hot water
• Wood biomass as primary fuel
• Three turbines, producing a maximum of 25 megawatts of electricity
• Steam distribution system
• State-of-the-art emission control equipment
• New Cooling tower
• Maintaining the wartime history of the existing building