u designed the new Court House building on

I 2 Queen Square, just east of Province House ‘ ' L (now rebuilt after a fire and renamed the Coles Building). It was Alley who the Baptists called on to design a church that would be ”unique for Charlottetown”. There are newspaper articles referring to Alley’s design as the ”round” church, but it was actually an attractive octagonal brick structure, with a tower and main entrance that would face on Prince Street. it would be just one block south of the original site of the old church and across Fitzroy Street from one of the city’s most elegant homes, ”Fairholm”. Architect Thomas Alley’s home in Charlottetown is still in use. It is one block south ofTrinity United Church on the same side of the street. For many years » . '- - it was used as Provincial Headquarters of the StJames Presbyterian Church RCMP and it is now the provincial office of the

PownaIStreet-(c.1890) Canadian Red Cross.

PublitArchives olPEI , , _ ,

After a flurry of organizational actIVIty, the new church structure was started in November of 1878, by local builders William and David Fraser. It was now a matter of organizing the membership and figuring out exactly how to pay for it. Shortly after ground was broken, Rev.Trueman Bishop from Greenwich, Nova Scotia, was visiting the Island on a preaching assignment. Before he left, his old friend Pastor McDonald took him on a tour of other Charlottetown churches, seeking ideas that could be applied to the new building. One church visited, no doubt, was the new stone Kirk of St. James, opened one month earlier next door to their old chapel on the corner of Pownal and Fitzroy. Members of the Charlottetown Baptist Church were excited and supportive of the new building under construction, even though most of the many new ideas to raise money involved gleaning every penny possible out of their pockets.

Pastor McDonald is credited with encouraging a number of the local churches to participate in a series of evening services called the ”Week of Prayer”.

When the first Week of Prayer service was held at Charlottetown Baptist, in March of .

1879, a small Baptist group met following the service to consider Pastor McDonald’s latest idea; that the congregation be encouraged to sign a pledge card to cover

current expenses and the pastor’s salary for the next 12 months. Brother Johnathan ;

Metcalf would chair a new Pledge Committee, consisting of John Currie, Donald Nicholson, John Scott and Charles Smallwood. On April 1, 1879, the new card was ready for distribution:

REMEMBERING THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND DESIRING TO AID IN ADVANCING HIS KINGDOM, I WILL, THE LORD ENABLING ME, CONTRIBUTE TO THE TREASURY OF THIS BAPTIST

CHURCH THE SUM OF S . EACH WEEK, AS SPECIFIED ON THE BACK OF THIS CARD. SIGNED

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