Located at 664 Victoria, and currently home to the Downtown Windsor Mission, the building was originally home to the Temple Baptist Church.
The building was built in 1925, and designed by the local Windsor architect Douglas C. Winter, who just so happened to be a member of the congregation.
Temple Baptist was closed in 2002, and the congregation merged with that of the Olivet Baptist Church, and high tailed it to the suburbs, where they opened together as Banwell Community Church, right on the border with Tecumseh.
Olivet Baptist was one I had never heard of before… A bit of Googling gave me this church at Logan & Fraser just south east of the Howard/Tecumseh area.
Anyone with any memories of either Temple or Olivet Baptist Churches?
that’s a great looking church and i’m happy it’s still in use. is there no services there anymore?
and as for the church on logan and frasier….i never even knew it existed untill now and i grew up in the area. i’m sure i had seen it but never really stuck in my head.
I went to Olivet Baptist as a child in the 1980s. I cannot remember the pastor’s name for the life of me, but I will ask my mom later today. His wife’s name was Hyacinth, (I remember that because I’ve never again met someone with that name) and I believe they were from Trinidad originally. They were wonderful people and it was a small, close knit congregation. My aunt introduced us to this church because she lived very close by on Irvine. Seeing this old place brings back some memories for me, thanks for this post, Andrew.
In the ’70’s there used to be a daycare there too, I went there every weekday to pick up a little girl I was babysitting. Church, daycare, mission, all helping people, makes a great history!
As a kid in the 70’s I went there with my parents.I pretty much had the run of the place. Meaning I could go any place in the building. After Sunday school my friends and I would take out all the tricycles scooters and wagons that were owned by the daycare facility and race around the auditorium on them.I always left there all sweaty. The Cub Scout pack I went to on Wed. night was also there. In the side yard the daycare had a playground. In it was a giant cube made out of plywood ,the size of a large shed. It had passages inside you could crawl through and hide in. I never cared much for going to church, I just loved go play in the big old place. My grandfather was a charter member of Temple Baptist Church. It was nothing like the fanatical southern Baptists from down south you here about on TV. Many older people, no dancing around or arm waving. I have some of the yellow diamomd shaped stained glass from the origional front windows.
Both my brother Burnie and I attended (grudgingly) Temple Baptist Church, mostly the bible reading study, doing the long trek from Riverside on the Lauzon then Erie buses. The preacher then was Rev Leonard (Len) O’Neill, not sure of the spelling. He was also the religious aspect of the YMCA Camp Kitchikewana on Beausoleil Island, near Honey Harbour, which we ferociously enjoyed for many years. He was a single man and appeared to love children and young adults. He was quite popular with his congregation and fared well.
Hi all. Great site, informative and educational. I remember Olivet very well. I went there in the mid 80’s through the 1990’s. I was in my early 20’s and became a christian and was baptized there. The pastors during that time were Gene Templemeyer (he baptized me), Ken Styles (he wasn’t ordained until after coming here and so when he oversaw my wedding we had to have Stan Mantel from Grace Baptist come in to perform the official parts), and then John Stevenette. We left to go to a different church just as they were getting around to selling the building. Anyway for Brendan above (hope he see’s this), Hyacinth is married to Claude and he was a deacon (or elder) of the church, not the pastor. Great couple and parents of George who is the god father of my son Liam. Olivet was a great little church in it’s day and had a very active youth program. A little something for you on the history of the place to go with this site’s theme – Olivet was a church plant of Temple back in 1926 I believe. At one of the last big Anniversary parties for the church, George & I had to go over to Michigan to pick up a lovely older lady (If memory serves Mrs. Gerney) who was one of the ladies from Temple who helped raise money to buy the property back then. She told us it cost $500 dollars for each plot of land and they bought three. Back then Olivet was build in an area that was on the outskirts of town and just empty land or bush and farm land. That Olivet and Temple joined to form Banwell after there earlier connection is pretty cool. I returned to Banwell about 8 years ago. I say returned because the same people from Olivet (my old family were still there) and some new friends/family. I am an active member there today and it is a growing and vital church in our community. I have now watched my oldest married there and see my other children involved in ministry there. Come check it out some Sunday and see; and if you went to the other churches previously you may find some familiar faces there (Like Claude & Hyacinth).