The area around Ontario and Carlton Streets is probably most remembered for McKinnon Industries and St. Catharines’ first General Motors plant. But this neighbourhood was also home to the city’s Armenian community. These people had emerged from extreme persecution, poverty, and tragedy to make a mark on St. Catharines and across Canada.  Sean heads to St. Gregory the Illuminator, Canada’s first Armenian church. This is History from Here: a video series presented by the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre. 

This church was built in 1930, but its story begins some decades before that. Armenians started arriving in Southern Ontario in the 1880s. They came largely as refugees from an increasingly brutal Turkish rule during the declining years of the Ottoman Empire. The culturally distinct Armenians were facing forced religious conversions and regular massacres. Immigration to Canada grew rapidly beginning in 1915 when the situation back home devolved into a full-fledged genocide. Hamilton, Brantford, and St. Catharines were the earliest significant centres of Armenian settlement in Canada, largely due to opportunities for industrial work. And plenty found work at McKinnon Industries. In fact, the foundry there was once nicknamed, “Little Armenia”. 

The Armenian Apostolic Church is a state religion that is common to over 95% of Armenians, so settlers from diverse geographic, linguistic, and political backgrounds were able to forge a new community based on faith traditions. A St. Catharines parish was quickly formed but it would be several decades before they were able to support a full-time priest or fund the construction of a brick-and-mortar church building. Meetings were led by deacons and were held in Anglican Churches, including St. Thomas’, further down Ontario Street. St. Catharines and other diaspora communities would occasionally be visited by itinerant priests from New York. They would perform weddings and other sacraments for Armenian-Canadians who may have been waiting a year or longer.  

Though there certainly was appetite for a permanent church, it was the community’s education needs that ultimately got the ball rolling. There had been a small Armenian library down the street from here since about 1916 which began offering evening language classes in 1925 under the name Raffi Varzharan. This volunteer-led program was so successful that, in 1929, the community decided it was time for a permanent building. Land was purchased and plans were drawn up for a mixed school and community centre. Levon Babayan, president of the Armenian Union of Canada in Toronto, heard about the plan and tried to convince the group to build a church instead. The final compromise included space for a church on the upper level and a school and community centre below. 

Construction was made possible through a fundraising campaign that reached out to Armenian communities as far away as Chicago and St. Louis, as well as non-Armenians here in St. Catharines. The campaign raised about $9000, with Babayan providing a $4000 loan for the rest. He later canceled the debt in theatrical fashion when he burned the mortgage papers at a church banquet. 

St. Gregory the Illuminator Church immediately became the hub of the St. Catharines Armenian community and the envy of other communities across Ontario and Quebec. The school flourished in its new home. The community centre included a library which kept an up-to-date stock of Armenian newspapers and other publications. Cards and backgammon were played, celebrations and dinners were held, and the community even staged amateur theatre. In the early years, the church hosted the ancient Armenian tradition of Derndess. This ritual involved lighting a large bonfire in mid-February to aid in the coming of spring. The tradition sometimes involved jumping over the fire for luck and was discontinued in the 1930s due to safety concerns.  

St. Gregory’s has continued to flourish into modern times. The church began a major renovation and expansion in 1995 but, shortly before completion in 1997, it was vandalized and set fire by arsonists. The worst of the damage was contained to the front entry and workers managed to complete repairs in time for the planned October unveiling. A few years later in 2001, the church was honoured with a visit by Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church.  

St. Catharines’ active Armenian community has included several recognizable names. Hygus Torosian was a founding and active member of UAW Local 199, the GM union. He was involved in the church’s construction in 1930 and was present for its reopening in 1997. Neshan Krekorian fled Armenia in 1912, booking passage to North America with a third-class ticket aboard the ill-fated Titanic. Krekorian was one of the lucky survivors and eventually ended up in St. Catharines where he worked at McKinnon Industries for over 40 years. Ralph Markarian ran several well-loved local restaurants including Markarian’s Steakhouse just up Ontario St. He also played clarinet for the Lincoln and Welland Regimental Band and, in 1951, played a season of hockey with the St. Catharines Teepees. The striking pink dress currently on display in the museum galleries was worn by Diane Avadesian, Miss Armenian Club 1976 and an ambassador for the community at the Niagara Folk Arts Festival. 

St. Catharines has been home to a thriving Armenian community for over a century, and it is one of very few Canadian cities that can make that claim. And long after McKinnon Industries, the Warren Axe and Tool Company, and the NS&T streetcar lines have disappeared from this neighbourhood, St. Gregory the Illuminator Church continues to stand as a proud hub of Armenian culture in St. Catharines.