St Peter’s Anglican Church
At the middle of the nineteenth century a majority of the population of the Rear of Leeds Township professed membership in the Church of England; St. John’s, Leeds, the first Anglican church in the area was built in 1848 and drew its congregation from Jones Falls, Seeley's Bay and South Lake.
As a result of the religious revival of the 1860s that saw the Methodists build a church south of the village, the Anglicans in the Seeley’s Bay area convinced the diocese to purchase a half acre lot where Hillside Circle is now located. Plans for a church were proposed but support for the project waned and no church was built. In 1876 when Rev. Abel Coleman was rector, the diocese purchased a village lot on Mill St. where a small frame building was erected with services beginning in 1878 but support from the congregants was not sufficient to maintain the building and no services were held after 1883.
In 1889, under the rectorship of the Rev. Croly, the present church was built. There was considerable controversy over the location as at the time the lot chosen was low and swampy. The construction went ahead and on August 12, 1899 it opened its doors to worship. Although the predominating style is Romanesque Revival, the arched windows add a Gothic touch. In the 1920's, it was necessary to add buttresses to counteract shifting in the foundation, probably due to the condition of the land underneath that had caused such controversy when it was built.
