Dominion Chalmers United Church is a large United church, located in downtown Ottawa, at the corner of Cooper and O'Connor Streets (with access from Lisgar Street).

The Bank Street Presbyterian Church building was reconstructed by the architect William Hodgson in 1881 after a fire. Alexander Cowper Hutchison designed the Bank Street Presbyterian Sunday School in 1890. The Dominion Methodist plaque lists Alexis Helmer, whose death was the inspiration for John McCrae's poem, "In Flanders Fields".

The building was destroyed in a fire in February 1961.

The Dominion Methodist/United Church's roots go back to Methodist circuit riders visitations in Hull, Lower Canada from 1816, and a wooden structure built on Rideau Street in the Lower Town in 1827.

The Dominion-Chalmers (or DC Church) buildings have recently undergone major renovations to their large sanctuary (damaged by a fire in 1955), and is used for concerts; and for other special events, sometimes of a national nature.

The Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre

In 2018, Carleton University purchased the church building as a performance space, though the congregation will continue to use the building for religious services as well. After its repossession, it was officially renamed the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, although it is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the amalgamated Carleton Dominion-Chalmers United Centre. Mara Brown was announced as this extension's first director on 1 April 2019, effective 15 April 2019. Prior to this appointment, on 26 March 2019, the university held a festival of life celebration for Professor Pius Adesanmi, Director of Carleton's Institute of African Studies; one of 18 Canadian persons to have died in a tragic plane crash on 10 March 2019.

State funerals

Several Canadian state funerals have been held in the building: of George Eulas Foster in 1932, Sidney Earle Smith in 1959, and Ed Broadbent in 2024.

References

  • History