Location

Sharon Temple is pleased to host the annual Words Alive! Literary Festival. Festival participants are invited to explore one of Canada’s great historic sites and learn how a small religious sect called the Children of Peace helped transform Canadian democracy and built the breathtaking architectural icon that is the Sharon Temple.

Take a video tour of Sharon Temple.

How to Get There

Driving: You can get directions from this interactive Google map »

Public Transit: From Finch TTC Station, take the VIVA Blue to Newmarket GO Terminal, then transfer to the RT 69 Sutton GO Bus, getting off at Farr Avenue; Sharon Temple is a short walk south on Leslie. For detailed instructions or to find transit routes from other points of origin, go to http://tripplanner.yrt.ca.

The Story of Sharon Temple

The Children of Peace were a “plain folk”, former Quakers with no musical tradition, who went on to create the first civilian band in Canada and build the first organ in Ontario. They constructed an ornate temple to raise money for the poor, and established the province’s first shelter for the homeless. They took a lead role in the organization of the province’s first co-operative, the Farmers’ Storehouse, and opened the province’s first credit union. They played a critical role in the development of democracy in Canada through their support of William Lyon Mackenzie and by ensuring the elections of both “fathers of responsible government,” Robert Baldwin and Louis LaFontaine, in their riding in 1841, despite threats of political violence. Today, they are primarily remembered for the Temple, an architectural symbol of their vision of a society based on the values of peace, equality and social justice.

The Temple of the Children of Peace – with its Ark of the Covenant, inspirational Banners, Pipe and Barrel Organs and Jacob’s Ladder – was completed in 1832. The architectural elements of the Temple combine to express a singular religious vision of the most striking beauty. Its three tiers, four-fold symmetry, lanterns and pinnacles all take their inspiration from the Bible.

The leader of the sect was David Willson, who was born in New York State in 1778 and migrated to Canada in 1801. He joined the Quakers, of which his wife was a member, but his ministry was rejected when he began to preach at the beginning of the War of 1812. He was joined by a majority of the Quakers living on Yonge Street, including the Master Builder of the Temple and Meeting Houses, Ebenezer Doan; Doan’s farmhouse and out buildings now stand on the museum grounds.

After Willson’s death in 1866 the sect slowly diminished. The last service was held in the Temple in 1889. The derelict Temple was purchased by the York Pioneer and Historical Society in 1917, and restored, making it one of the earliest examples of historic preservation in Canada. The temple is now a National Historic Site and Museum as well as a National Peace Site.