Cooke’s Presbyterian Church, in Toronto, was known as “the Irish” church. So when Lynda Hughes and her brother came along, they were baptized in Cooke’s even though the Hughes family attended Riverdale Presbyterian because it was closer to their home in the city’s east end.
Both Lynda’s parents, Edward and Sarah Blain Hughes, were born in Ireland. As young immigrants, they found each other at Cooke’s. Interestingly, the congregation of Cooke’s Presbyterian, founded in 1851, insisted on appointing Irish-born ministers. The church started out as Second Presbyterian, but was re-named, in 1856, in honour of Rev. Henry Cooke who had emigrated from Belfast. The hefty Victorian edifice stood on Queen St E., at the corner of Mutual, until it’s demolition in 1984.
Lynda’s formative years were spent at Riverdale and she remembers, as a six-year-old, being greeted Sundays mornings, by Mr. Patterson, an elder, who called her Miss Hughes. Lynda admits she looked pretty important in her little Sunday hat, white gloves and patent leather shoes.
When Lynda was a child, hundreds of children and youths attended Riverdale’s Sunday School .There were three large rooms and a child progressed, with age, from one to the other. Lynda thinks back to kindly teachers like Catherine Blackburn and the cut-out robed figures, she applied to flannel boards to illustrate Bible stories.
But Lynda’s most vivid memory is of the hymn sings led by Mr. Jack Spears. The hymns, on glass squares, were projected onto the wall and to this day, she remembers every word of all those beloved traditional hymns. Lynda feels the greatest gift of her Presbyterian up-bringing was the joy of singing and learning the old melodies. Sadly, Lynda’s favourite hymn, from those days, Come to The Saviour, is now history. It is gone from the Presbyterian hymnal and like so many of the inspirational pieces of the church, replaced by evangelical songs.
In her teens Lynda belonged to the church’s Young People’s group. She remembers one social evening at Miss McIver’s home. It seems Miss McIver had just returned from a hot Caribbean holiday and taught the young people to dance the exotic and slightly naughty cha cha cha.
So many memories flood in, as Lynda chats on about her experiences at Riverdale, including Christmases when the Young People would take the neighbourhood elderly on a private bus to see the Christmas lights throughout the city. This was always followed by a supper in the church basement.
Rev. A. Gordon MacPherson was the minister, at Riverdale, during Lynda’s formative years.
Fast forward to 1974, when Lynda (by then Lynda Franklin) started to attend Glenview Presbyterian Church. She soon discovered that the widowed Mrs. MacPherson was also a member. When Lynda’s son was born Mrs. MacPherson presented her with booties for the baby. “She said I give all my Riverdale girls booties,” recalls Lynda. (The two Franklin children were baptized at Glenview and Lynda, a retired lawyer, is still a member.)
Meanwhile part of Riverdale Presbyterian, a huge structure built in 1912, was recently converted to lofts. But the rest of the building still houses a dedicated congregation, actively, serving the community.
Lynda treasures a cookbook that belonged to her mother Sarah. It was compiled, in 1939, by The Women’s Association of Morningside Presbyterian Church, in Swansea. “My mother had a dear friend Eleanor Patterson who went to Morningside. The cookbook is well used and barely holds together,” Lynda says. “The date loaf is divine – warm from the oven and slathered with butter.”
MORNINGSIDE DATE LOAF
½ Ib. Dates
1 ½ cups flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon melted butter
METHOD
Cut the dates and put in a bowl. Sprinkle with soda and cover with boiling water. Let cool.
Mix together: sugar, salt, flour. Add cooled date mixture. Add melted butter.
Bake, in a loaf pan, one hour in a moderate oven (350 degrees).
(Mrs. D.B. Wallace, Morningside, 1939)
