The Iron Duke (451 Elizabeth St.)

Built in 1858 as the Methodist Episcopal Church, this Gothic revival vernacular structure was the first Methodist Episcopal Church in the village. Its high front-gabled roof has an oval date stone, a panel edged with raised brick, and a decorative raised brick gable border. Gothic windows and centre door, set in a gabled porch, have finely proportioned raised brick drip edges. After a fire in 1980, the stained-glass windows were replaced with clear single-paned glass. The divided mullions in the Gothic windows were not restored. The front doors were replaced, and the former arched transom filled in with solid panels. The basement windows have been bricked in. Part of the south wall was painted white when a lean-to addition (since removed) was there. Shed-roofed addition at the rear. The Methodist Episcopals were American immigrants and quite distinct from the Wesleyan Methodists, who were immigrants mostly from Britain, with some from the New England states. This was a very expensive structure to build, and the mortgage is said to have been too high for the congregation to carry. They sold the building to the Sons of Temperance and rented it for their Sunday services, at a rate of 50 cents per Sunday, or $1 for two services. It was bought in 1886 by the congregation of St. Luke's Anglican Church and served as the Sunday School for thirty years or more. In 1919, it was transferred to the trustees of the Burlington Great War Veteran's Association, then sold in 1947 to the Canadian Legion Burlington Branch 60, and later to the Trustees for the Navy League of Canada. Now used as the Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Hall. Its name, the Iron Duke, was the epithet of the Duke of Wellington, after whom Wellington Square was named.