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The City of Guelph, Ontario, Canada
What does Guelph look like?
Picture Gallery 2


The First Baptist Church St. Andrew's Church St. George's Church

The First Baptist Church that now stands at 255 Woolwich Streets was made possible primarily through the generosity of Charles Raymond, noted local industrialist who founded and operated the Raymond Sewing Machine Company. Charles Raymond deeded two lots on Woolwich Street for the construction of the building. The Church was designed by Henry Langley, a Toronto based architect well known for his church designs (he also designed St. George's Church). It was built between 1872 and 1875.

St. Andrew's Church boasts the first organized religious congregation in Guelph although the building itself is slightly younger than Guelph's oldest standing church, the Norfolk Street United Church (completed in 1856).  Construction of St. Andrew's Church began in 1857 and was completed the following year with the first meeting of the Presbytery in the Church occurring on September 20, 1858. The Church was designed by William Hay.

St. George's Church can boast having had a Church for almost as long as Guelph has existed.  Only five years after the founding of Guelph, construction began on the first St. George's Church, a wooden structure that was located in St. George's Square.  Completed in 1834, this small wooden Church was the second built in Guelph (after the first St. Andrew's). The wooden church was replaced on the same site in 1851 by a larger second Church built of stone.  With the completion of the present day Church on Woolwich Street in 1873, the congregation found a permanent place of worship.

The Wellington Hotel Central Public School Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institution (GCVI)

The Wellington Hotel. The triangular Wellington building, built in the Louis Phillipe style of architecture stands on the corners of Upper Wyndham and Woolwich Streets and has a distinctly Parisian look.  The site for this building was acquired by the Wellington Hotel Company from James Massie in 1876. Originally, the triangular lot housed a lumber yard and a small carpentry shop.  The building was first opened for business as the Wellington Hotel on August 23, 1878.  Today, the Wellington houses two government offices, a restaurant, and an office for the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Central Public School still stands today on the site where it has stood for 125 years.  The present structure , however, is less imposing than the original Central School building and makes far less of a statement on the Guelph City skyline! The old Central School which was built in 1877 stood until 1986 when it was demolished to make way for this new building. The bell from the old school was preserved and mounted in front of the new building, visible here just to the left of the main entrance door.

Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institution (GCVI) was, for many years, the only high school in the City of Guelph.  It origins can be traced back to the Wellington District Grammar School that was established on the site in 1854. When the railroad arrived in Guelph in 1854, it came dangerously close to the grammar school then in existence.  For safety reasons, it was decided to move the school to a four acre lot on Paisley that had been purchased by the District Council of the District of Wellington in 1847. Although buildings have been added, removed, and significantly renovated, GCVI has stood on this land until the present.

River Run Centre    
River Run Centre. Guelph's magnificent state-of-the-art performing arts centre is set along the picturesque bank of the Speed River in the city's downtown core near the site where Guelph was founded. The complex features a 785-seat concert/theatre, a 225-seat multi-use studio theatre and a 350-seat reception hall and lobby.    

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