For 110 years, the assembly now known as Malden Road Gospel Hall has gathered continuously to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Established as “Gospel Hall” in November 1916, it later became Partington Avenue Gospel Hall and then Windsor Gospel Hall. Yet its story began before it ever came to Windsor.
The Holy Spirit’s work can be traced to the Gospel ministry in Southern Ontario and the remarkable 1875 Hamilton awakening under Donald Munro and John Smith. One evening, two young men—W. L. Faulkner and T. D. W. Muir—came under deep conviction of sin and left rejoicing in the knowledge of sins forgiven. Both devoted their lives to Christ. Muir settled in Michigan, and by 1881, Detroit was his home. Through tent meetings, open-air preaching, house-to-house evangelism, and his wife’s faithful partnership, the work flourished. An assembly was established, annual conferences began, and Central Gospel Hall became a Gospel centre.
For those in Ontario, the Detroit River ferry made attending services at Central Gospel Hall relatively easy. Among those making the weekly journey was William Lever, who came to Canada in 1911. Because Windsor had no assembly, he and his family fellowshipped with believers in Detroit.
The First World War brought rapid growth to Windsor and surrounding communities. In January 1915, brethren from Central Gospel Hall began crossing the river for Gospel meetings. That year, chiropractor Victor Fuller arrived from Niagara Falls with the Gospel tent he had bought in 1913, having already done summer Gospel work with George Hicks. Together with the Detroit brethren’s continuing support, their work brought the Gospel message into Windsor in a sustained way.
Tuesday evening Gospel Meetings were held in the home of Charles J. Stowe, a future founding member of the Windsor assembly. Sunday evening meetings continued there, with Detroit brethren crossing the river to assist. Fuller and Hicks again pitched their tent for a summer series, and Bible classes met in the home of John Young, another future founding member.
By autumn 1916, the groundwork had been laid. Supported by Central Gospel Hall, the families of William Lever, Charles Stowe, and John Young, along with Sarah Bowes, determined to establish an assembly in Windsor.
On Sunday, November 19, 1916, the saints gathered for the first time as a local assembly, a testimony to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, meeting at the International Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) Temple in downtown Windsor, where Sunday School, Gospel meetings, Bible study, and prayer meetings were established. The young assembly remained closely connected with Detroit, as T. D. W. Muir and others regularly crossed the river to preach and teach. Tent meetings and Bible studies continued, and in 1919 the assembly took the Gospel into the streets with open-air meetings downtown, a block from the busy ferry terminal.
On November 11, 1923, Mary Wackley was saved during meetings conducted by Mr. Duffin and Mr. J. R. Littleproud. She later married David McCloy and became one of the early names remembered in the Windsor testimony.
The assembly continued meeting at the I.O.O.F. Temple, but plans for a new tunnel under the Detroit River meant the building would be demolished. In 1927, the brethren purchased land on Partington Avenue and built a new Gospel Hall. Named on the documents were William Lever, Albert W. Littleproud, John W. Russell, David McCloy, William G. Bendell, Richard C. E. Young, Robert R. Bell, and Errol O. Girling. Construction took only three months. The new Windsor Gospel Hall on Partington Avenue opened July 2–3, 1927, with a two-day conference. Robert McCrory of Hamilton preached the first Gospel series that autumn, followed through the 1920s by many other preachers and teachers, including John Ferguson, C. H. Willoughby, James McMullen, George Shivas, Albert Klabunda, Alexander Stewart, James Marshall, George Gould Sr. and Jr., Dr. H. A. Cameron, John Pinches, Robert Neilson, Cyril Popplestone, William Gillespie, Harold McKay, John Gilchrist, Alexander Livingstone, Henry Fletcher, and F. W. Schwartz.
In June 1933, Clara McLean was saved while sitting on her front porch. She and her husband, Russell, were baptized and received into fellowship that year. Their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren would continue the family’s connection with the assembly for generations.
A long tradition of New Year’s Conferences began January 1, 1945, with the first conference in the Hall, featuring John Govan, William Ferguson, Peter Pell, Fred Nugent, and George Shivas. In 1953, a young man named Robert Wylie came to visit an uncle, intending to continue journeying westward. A young lady named Betty caught his eye, though, and Bob stayed in Windsor, marrying her a few years later. He remained a faithful brother in the assembly for years afterward.
Perhaps the most memorable period of Gospel blessing came in 1956. Meetings with Jim Clark of Sault Ste. Marie began March 25 and continued almost every night until April 29, with as many as fourteen people saved. Among them was twelve-year-old Joan Bulmer, who remembered April 13 as the day of her salvation. Others included Jack Way, Walter McLean (son of Russell and Clara), and his siblings Lawrence, Ruth, and Betty. Lawrence later became a respected elder and zealous Gospel worker. Known for his cheerful spirit, he often ended conversations with, “Keep looking up!” Shortly before his death, asked what Christ meant to him, he answered, “Everything, and then some!
Decades brought changes, but the testimony continued. Central Gospel Hall in Detroit held its final meetings in December 1956, and the assembly dispersed to other locations. Several assemblies today trace their roots to that work, including one in Florida.
In summer 1959, Ray Klingbile heard the Gospel preached in the open air near the Ambassador Bridge. He began attending the Hall and was saved on July 4, 1960, later baptized and received into fellowship. Joan Bulmer was received in 1961 and married Ray in the Hall on February 9, 1963. They have remained in happy fellowship ever since.
Others joined the assembly through the following decades. William and Ellen Hynes came to Windsor; William is remembered especially for his three-volume work on Revelation. Steve and Merle Kember arrived in 1970, followed by Ray and Ruth Fairley in 1972.
The assembly kept looking for ways to bring the Gospel into the community. In 1981, meetings were held in a rented storefront, taking the message into a place where people were already walking and shopping. Jim Beattie was influential in the work there, and eventually the man who had rented the store to the assembly, Mason Younan, professed faith; his wife Barb was saved shortly afterward, along with other family members.
In January 1984, Larry Perkins was commended to full-time service for the Lord. In Windsor fellowship since 1975, he had shown an earnest, faithful concern for the things of God, and continues serving in Illinois.
Other outreach followed. In 1991, as the assembly marked seventy-five years of testimony, a “Dial-A-Bible-Message” ministry drew enquiries and requests for Bibles. Later, Gospel meetings at the University of Windsor brought the message into students’ everyday lives.
The 100th Anniversary gathering was held October 29, 2016, at the Fogolar Furlan Club of Windsor. Larry Perkins, Dan Shutt, and Bill Lavery spoke, reflecting on the past century and encouraging the assembly for the years ahead.
By 2022, the Partington Avenue building could no longer accommodate the assembly. The property was sold, and a search for a new home began. In June 2023, a building in LaSalle, formerly occupied by Open Bible Fellowship, was purchased. The final meeting at Partington Avenue was held Sunday, June 11, 2023. One week later, the assembly gathered for the first time in its new location, now renamed Malden Road Gospel Hall. The address had changed. The building had changed. Even the name had changed. But the testimony had not.
From Hamilton to Detroit, and across the river to Windsor, the story has never really been about buildings or addresses. It has been about God’s faithfulness, the work sustained by the Holy Spirit through ordinary men and women seeking to obey His Word and serve Him. Across more than a century, the Lord has used preachers, elders, Sunday School teachers, parents, young people, and countless faithful believers whose names may never appear in a history book. Their prayers, visits, teaching, encouragement, Gospel preaching, and quiet service have all been part of the story.