​Following several public hearings at which many speakers expressed strong support for heritage protection, 817 Mount Pleasant Avenue was listed on the City of Toronto’s Heritage Register in June 2023.

The Designation Process

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In June 2025, two years after its listing date, the property was technically removed  from  the  Heritage Register in accordance with the Ontario Heritage Act. However, this did not prevent City Council from proceeding  with  the  designation  process, and Heritage Planning continued advancing a Notice of Intention to Designate in March of 2025.

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Ontario Regulation 9/06 sets out the criteria for evaluating properties for designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act. These criteria assess a property’s design or physical value, historical and associative value, and contextual value. A property may be designated if it meets at least two of the provincial criteria for determining cultural heritage value or interest.  Remarkably, 817 Mount Pleasant Road was found to satisfy five of the nine criteria!

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The  designation  process  then  proceeded  through  the  required municipal approvals. Heritage Planning presented a Notice of Intention to Designate (NOID) to the Toronto Preservation Board, where it was readily approved. The matter then advanced to the Planning and Housing Committee, followed by Toronto City Council, which officially adopted the designation. After the required 30-day appeal period, the by-law designating the property at 817 Mount Pleasant Road was enacted on June 25th, 2026.

Designation of Property

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On  April 28th, 2026, City Clerk John D. Elvidge formally issued the Notice of Intention to Designate the Property stating:

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“TAKE NOTICE that Council for the City of Toronto intends to designate the property, including the lands, buildings and structures thereon known municipally as 817 Mount Pleasant Road under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.O.18, as amended, as a property of cultural heritage value or interest.

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Reasons for Designation

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The property at 817 Mount Pleasant Road is worthy of designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act for its cultural heritage  value,  and meets Ontario Regulation 9/06, the provincial criteria prescribed for municipal designation, under the categories of design/physical, historical/associative, and contextual value.

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Description

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Located  on  the  southeast  corner  of  Mount  Pleasant Road and Roehampton Avenue, St. Peter's Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (817 Mount Pleasant Road) was commissioned by Estonian immigrants  and  designed  by Estonian-Canadian architect and church member, Michael Bach. Erected in 1955 as a memorial to the thousands of Estonians who died in both World Wars, the Estonian War of Independence, and as refugees, it continues to serve as an active place of worship and commemoration for Toronto’s Estonian Evangelical Lutheran community and as a cultural hub for the broader Estonian-Canadian community. The property contains a Mid-Century Modernist style A-Frame Church with attached two-storey ancillary wing, a 1970 Modernist style freestanding, pre-cast concrete belltower, and columbarium. Based on Bach's plan, fellow Estonian-Canadian architect and church member Ants Elken oversaw the addition of the Ladies Guild Room to the north wing, bell tower, and courtyard with garden wall, which were completed by 1970.

Statement of Cultural Heritage Value

Historical and Associative Value

The property has value for its direct association with Toronto's Estonian-Canadian community. St. Peter's Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church was established in 1948 by Estonian immigrants fleeing Soviet occupation after the end of the Second World War. Following a brief period of worship at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church at 274 Concord Avenue, in 1954 the church commissioned Estonian-Canadian architect and church member, Michael Bach, to design their own place of worship. Constructed and consecrated in 1955, the property has continuously served as a place of worship for the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran community and a cultural hub for the broader Estonian Canadian community.

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The church also has value for its association with the noted Estonian-Canadian architect, Michael Bach (1916-1972), who is identified as a person of significance by Toronto’s Estonian-Canadian community. An instructor at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Toronto, Bach was the first of a group of Estonian-Canadian architects to arrive in Toronto after the Second World War who would play an important role in advancing Modernism in Toronto. The subject property reflects the ideas of Michael Bach, which were heavily influenced by Scandinavian Modernist architecture. This is evidenced through its Mid-Century Modernist design, clean lines, and an emphasis on natural materials.

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The property has further value for its association with acclaimed Austro-Canadian glass artist and painter Ernestine Tahedl, who created the property's stained-glass windows between 1987 and 1990. With a career spanning over 60 years, her works include the coloured-glass windows for the Sanctuary building at the Canadian pavilion for Expo ‘ 67 (1965-1967) and the Salvation Army Sanctuary in Toronto (2023). Other notable works by Tahedl include the concrete and glass sculpture lantern at McGill University (1968), and the glass mosaics for the former Edmonton Post Office (1965), which were reinstalled at the Royal Alberta Museum in 2016.

Design Value

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The property at 817 Mount Pleasant Road has design value as a representative example of a Mid-Century Modernist style A-Frame church. Its clean lines, functionality, simplicity of form, honest expression of both natural and manufactured materials, and large, steep, gable-ended roofline and freestanding bell tower are hallmarks of the Mid-Century Modernist style. The property is unique for its fan-shaped plan with sloping roof ridge, complex four-point glulam beam trusses, copper clad roof with ridges referencing the glulam trusses, prow-shaped principal elevation with projecting front gable, and richly textured brick cladding laid in the Common bond pattern featuring alternating recessed and protruding courses.

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The property also has design value for its artistic merit which masterfully combines scale, form, and massing, with structural elements and materials. This is reflected in the building's fan shaped floor plan and rear sloping roof ridge that, on the interior, draws the eye to the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical (east) end, a floating balcony surmounted by a full height window at the west end, a wood clad cathedral ceiling supported by a system of four-point wood laminated glulam trusses, and pyramidal hanging light fixtures.

Contextual Value

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St. Peter's Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church has contextual value as a landmark property on Mount Pleasant Road. Constructed in 1955 and enlarged in 1970 and 1975, its distinctive free-standing bell tower and Mid-Century Modernist design stand out among the surrounding mix of early-20th century house-form buildings, modern mixed-use mid and high-rise structures, and the Collegiate-Gothic style of Northern Secondary School directly to the north. St. Peter's Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church also has value as a cultural landmark for the greater Toronto area as an active place of worship serving Toronto's Estonian Evangelical Lutheran community and its members throughout the city for the past 70 years.

Heritage Attributes

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Design or Physical Value

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The following heritage attributes contribute to the design and physical value of the property:

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Exterior - 

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• The scale, form, and massing of the church, featuring a fan shaped plan with prow-shaped principal (west) elevation and steep A-Frame roof with sloping roof-ridge,

• The copper roof cladding featuring raised diagonally set ridges following the interior laminated wood glulam roof trusses,

• The brown brick cladding laid in a textured Common bond pattern featuring alternating courses of recessed and protruding brick at the principal (west) and rear (east) elevations,

• The principal (west) elevation's centred double entrance featuring heavy wooden doors with vertical battening and copper clad awning set beneath a full-height window featuring triangular lights with metal muntins divided into four quadrants by mullions in the form of a Latin cross,

• The freestanding precast concrete bell tower.

Interior -

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• The exposed laminated wood glulam roof trusses set in a crossing pattern that terminate as pillars at grade,

• The wood-clad cathedral ceiling in the nave and sanctuary featuring a narrow, full-height skylight at the rear (east) wall above the altar,

• The full height volume of the sanctuary featuring wooden pews and floating balcony at the west end featuring a pipe organ and accessed by north and south balcony staircases,

• The low-slung north and south walls featuring coloured-glass windows set between the laminated wood glulam pillars,

• The rear (east) wall featuring flush pointed Common bond-laid brown brick,

• The front (west) wall featuring flush pointed Common bond-laid brown brick set between vertical steel supports, and centered double entrance with batten doors beneath a full height coloured-glass window.

Historical or Associative Value

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The following heritage attributes contribute to the historical and associative value of the property:

• The organ, located on the floating balcony with plaque commemorating Estonian Sailors,

• The Finnish Boys Memorial on the south wall facing the altar,

• The coloured-glass windows on the north, south, and west walls of the church,

• The date stone on the north corner of the principal (west) elevation.

Contextual Value

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The following heritage attributes contribute to the contextual value of the property:  The set-back, placement and orientation of the main church building  and  bell  tower on the east side of Mount Pleasant Road at Roehampton Avenue.  NOTE: The columbarium and 1955-1970 ancillary wing do not contain heritage attributes.”

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