QUEEN SQUARE (SECESSIONIST) CHURCH: Mrs. Hannah Blanchard Douglas was the wife of Rev. Robert D . Douglas (sometimes spelled Douglass), pastor (1821-1846) of St. Peters Bay congregation. Upon his death in 1846, she moved to Charlottetown with her children. She used her considerable energy, drive and connections with clergy of the Presbyterian Churches of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island to create a desire for a new church. Mrs. Douglas , along with Isaac C. Hall , William Morrell , L. McKay and William Mutch , were listed as founders of the church in Samuel Nash 's book of 1908. The old Temperance Hall , also called the Athenaeum (by definition: a literary or scientific club in ancient Athens; on the corner of Prince and Grafton, across from present day Zion Church) was rented and a few families and individuals were organized into a preaching station in 1847. The Athenaeum was later called The School of Music and Kindergarten in the 1917 insurance map of the City, and in 1924 became the new home of the Guardian Newspaper. The same building was also used by the Free Church before they had their own building. The matter of organizing and erecting a church was intrusted to a committee of the Presbyteries of and Prince Edward Island in 1856. That committee consisted of Rev. Dr. James Bayne , Rev. Dr. David Roy and Rev. Dr. George Patterson of the Pictou Presbytery and Rev. Dr. John Keir , Rev. Dr. Isaac Murray and Rev. James Allan of the P.E.I. Presbytery . The site on (where the Basilica Recreation Center is now) of what was originally known as Queen Square Church (sometimes called the secessionist church)was purchased in 1856 for $2,275 from the Masonic Hall Company . This church was east of the Union Bank, the building still standing on the corner of George and Richmond , with one lot in between, that lot was later the site of the Y.M.C.A. Presbytery minutes of May 5, 1857, record: " Mr. Keir reported that he had made enquiries respecting the comparison cost of a brick and of a wooden building in Charlottetown and that the former would cost at least £257 more than the latter. He further stated that in the opinion of competent judges, the site already purchased is too small for a church 40 by 65 feet. A smaller wooden church was then spoken of to be lighted by side and end windows. Mr. Murray was then instructed to write Mr. Smith for a plan of a building 32 by 70 feet. On August 11: It was resolved to purchase another lot adjoining it, with the committee instructed to advertise for tender for the erection and completion of a church 45 by 65 feet, the frame to be raised 1st of May AD 1858 and the whole building to be completed May AD 1859." 13