Meeting Hall on the north side of Kingston Road, east of Harwood Avenue, opposite the Friends Cemetery. In 1867, the main body of the Quakers built a large brick meeting hall, on the west side of Mill Street, to accommodate their Annual Meeting. The Annual Meeting was attended by Quakers from Canada, United States, England, and Ireland. In 1908, the meeting hall was heavily damaged by a lightning strike and fire, and rebuilt. The membership of the Quaker movement in the area gradually declined, and in November 1942, The Pickering News carried a public notice of auction of the sale of the Quaker properties in the area. In 1943, the Quakers sold the building to Freemasons, and it became a Masonic Lodge. Other denominations In the 1840s, Edmond Shepherd started the Disciples Church with a small group who met in a school building. As the congregation grew over 200 members, a brick church was built on Kingston Road. The congregation membership declined gradually, and the Disciples Church discontinued its services by the end of the century. The Bible Christian movement met in a small brick church on the north-west corner of Kingston Road and George Jones Avenue. In 1883, they united with the Methodist Church, and their building was taken over by the Hicksite Quakers. During the World War II, the churches of Pickering Villages served the residents of the DIL Pickering Works community in Ajax. Bernard Kyte of St. Francis opened a mission at the Ajax Recreation Centre; the mission evolved into St. Bernadette's Parish. Pickering United Church and St. George's Anglican Church conducted joint services at the Ajax Recreation Centre under the ministry of the M. R. Jenkinson. Other services On 6 January 1829, a Scottish immigrant Francis Leys opened the first post office in the Duffins Creek area. It was called the "Pickering Post Office", and was located at various places near the intersection of Kingston Road and Church Street at different times. In 1942, the Pickering Village established its own civil defense unit, and 25 people signed up for a volunteer fire brigade. When a fire broke out, the volunteers were summoned using a town bell (c. 1898) that rang for church services and daily at specified times. The regular use of the bell was discontinued in 1944, and it rang only on special occasions, such as on the Victory in Europe Day in 1945. In