Leaside United Church will celebrate 88 years since the first service was held in a wooden portable at Millwood Rd. and McRae Dr. on November 25, 1928. The portable was a hand off from Manor Road United which had finished its brick and mortar church in 1920. But before that, Reverend James Miller was sent into the Leaside hinterland by the Toronto Home Missions Council to see about prospects for a new church. He began knocking on doors and received a warm welcome. There was no water, heating or sewage of course so rudimentary provisions were made. Chairs and stoves were purchased to outfit the wooden portable for that first Sunday when 125 people came to worship. It was a long 12 years later and a penny-pinching area of money-management during the depression before the congregation was able to turn sod at the four adjoining lots purchased in 1928. That was October 5, 1940. The inaugural service was June 1, 1941. Today Leaside United boasts the membership 300 families and is the same welcoming and inclusive church it was in 1928.
