History of the Building

The church was built and occupied by St. Mary's Lutheran Church from 1923 until June 2010, although the location was not always the same. St. Mary’s Lutheran Church has a long and interesting history. The congregation was organized on Oct 29, 1905, although the first Lutheran service in the Finnish language had been held in the Soo in 1896.

The building of the canal at the end of the 1800’s and the start of construction of the steel mill in the fall of 1900 had brought so many Finns to the Soo that according to the 1911 census, Sault Ste. Marie had the second largest Finnish population in Canada.

During the church’s early decades, pastors from Michigan officiated the services at St. Mary’s. At that time the size of the congregation fluctuated from 50 to 113 members. It took almost 30 years before the congregation got its first permanent pastor, Frank Pelkonen in 1932. Also in 1932 the church that had been erected in 1923 and located on Sixth Avenue, was put on wheels and transferred by manpower to its current location on Wellington Street.

In 1942, an apartment for the pastor was added to the church and continued to be used by the St. Mary's pastor and congregation for another 68 years.

In June of 2010 St. Mary's Church decided to merge with the Zion Lutheran Church in Sault Ste. Marie and move to the Zion Church's location and at this time the building was placed for sale.

In 2013 the building was purchased by entrepreneurs Kevin Belsito and Lynda Francoeur with the goal of converting the church into a multi-residential building. The first unit was completed in 2015, and constuction continued until completion in the spring of 2017. The building owners, together with their two children, now occupy "The Nave" (unit 100).

(Portions of this history were written by Jouko Jyrkama one time Pastor of St.Mary’s and Pastor of Zion Lutheran at the time of amalgamation of St. Mary’s congregation)