Yorkminster Park Baptist Church is a Baptist church located in Toronto's Deer Park, Canada. It is affiliated with Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec. History The origins of the congregation date from 1829 under the leadership of “good old Dr. Caldicott”, a young Englishman who preached to a small gathering just south-east of King and Yonge Streets. By 1848, the Church had become Bond Street Baptist Church, just north-east of Yonge and Queen Streets. One of the young laymen of that Church became Senator William McMaster, the chief benefactor of McMaster University. Families of Bond Street Baptist Church living at Yorkville found it very inconvenient to go downtown to church, and long ago conceived the idea of building in their own neighbourhood. In March 1870, a Sunday School mission was opened in what is now Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood by a few workers from Bond Street to serve the northern neighbourhoods of the city; a regular prayer meeting soon followed. During that summer, a small chapel was built on Scollard Street, and it was opened on September 1, 1870. The church was officially recognized and dedicated a year later in 1871 with thirty members as Yorkville Baptist Church. Pastors during this era included James Pyper, who was once pastor of Bond Street Baptist Church; Joseph Kiner, John Torrance, Tolment Harris, and William Brookman from 1880 - June 1881. Brookman's appointment was called into question by Joshua Denovan (then pastor of Alexander Street Baptist Church) as holding views not in harmony with orthodoxy (He was in sympathy with views brought forth by Charles Taze Russell. He left the congregation in June 1881 to form an independent congregation. In February 1882, Elmore Harris, formerly of Brantford (son of Alanson Harris, owner and founder of A. Harris, Son & Co. Ltd.), came to help pastor the church until 1889, when he resigned to pastor a new church (Walmer Road Baptist Church) located in The Annex section of Toronto (a bit west of Yorkville). During the pastorate of Elmore Harris, the congregation had grown from about seventy members to nearly five hundred. This growth of the congregation justified the construction of a new brick church. Built in 1882, the Toronto architect E. J. Lennox was commissioned to design the new building at the south-east corner of Bloor and Bay Streets (now the site of the Manufacturer’s Life building). The new church was renamed Bloor Street