A Stroll South Along Centre Street In about 1874 a group of citizens headed by carpenter Joseph Jaynes raised money by public subscription for the purchase of a bell from Detroit. Upon its delivery, the bell was installed atop a waggon shop at the corner of King and John Streets. At some point before 1892 a group of Hallowe’en pranksters absconded with the bell, although it was subsequently recovered. At that point the bell was reinstalled on the northeastern corner of Church and Centre Streets where it remained – with a brief interruption when it was temporarily located at the school– until about 1912 when it was finally installed in a tall wooden bell tower located at the southern end of Centre Street. The belfry burned in 1939 and was replaced by a metal tower. The bell was later installed above the Ontario Historical Plaque in front of the Arkona Seniors’ Hall and Fire Hall. Figure 18 Arkona Methodist Church and Parsonage before 1913. Arkona’s Wesleyan Methodists organized themselves in the 1850s and built their sanctuary at the southeastern corner of Centre and Union Streets in 1861/2. It served the amalgamated Wesleyan and Episcopal Methodist Churches after 1884. The building was raised and a basement was constructed in 1913 and brick from the old Keyser Methodist Church was recycled to cover the frame exterior. In 1925 it became Arkona United Church and would remain so until it closed in 2008. The manse on the right was built in 1896 to replace an earlier parsonage located on the southwestern corner of Union and Smith Streets. Courtesy of Wib Dunlop. Figure 19 Arkona’s Belfry at its final location at the junction of Ward, Church, and Centre Streets. Courtesy of the Arkona and Area Historical Society. Page 8 of 17
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