Old Hay Bay Church

OPEN - Mid May until mid October Old Hay Bay Church is the oldest surviving Methodist building in Canada. It was erected in 1792 by settlers, including United Empire Loyalists, who had recently arrived and established the community of Adolphustown (in modern-day Greater Napanee). Here, one can imagine, travelling saddlebag preachers thundered forth in their sermons. Here local residents gathered for worship and fellowship at Canada's first Methodist camp meeting in 1805. The building was enlarged in 1835, used as a farmer’s barn when the congregation built a new church in Adolphustown, c. 1860, and reacquired for church use in the early 20th century by the Methodists, (continuing, after union in 1925, as The United Church of Canada). The church, land, and its nearby cemetery were designated as a National Historic Site of Canada in 2001. Likewise, the church has also been officially recognized as an Ontario Historic Site. An annual worship service is held in the church on the fourth Sunday afternoon every August.